Abstract: Abstract: Background The construction of transmission towers in arid regions has impacted their ecological balance, resulting in the degeneration of soil fertility. Vegetation restoration is crucial in these disturbed areas, not only for preventing desertification but also for influencing soil microbial communities, which play a key role in nutrient cycling and soil health. However, the effects of such restoration on soil microbial residues—key indicators of long-term soil quality and ecosystem stability—remain poorly understood. Methods In this study, biomarker was used to determine the soil amino sugar content in vegetation restoration area. We calculated the contribution of microbial residue carbon content to organic carbon, and analyzed the relationship between microbial necromass carbon content and soil properties and microbial biomass. Results The results indicated that the microbial necromass carbon content (11.2±0.1 mg/g) in vegetation restoration soil was significantly higher than that in disturbed soil (3.9±0.6 mg/g), and restored to the level of undisturbed soil (8.84±1.3 mg/g). The contribution of microbial necromass carbon to soil organic carbon recovered from 21.9±3.1% to 50.8±4.0%, even higher than the undisturbed soil level of 30.0±5.2%. Soil microbial necromass carbon was mainly contributed by fungi, and the contribution of fungal residue carbon to soil organic carbon ranged from 18.3% to 29.8%, and that of bacterial residue carbon ranged from 13.6% to 20.9%. The variance decomposition results showed that soil properties and microbial biomass jointly explained 48.3% of the variation in microbial necromass carbon content, in which soil properties explained 35.5% of the variation and microbial biomass explained 27.4% of the variation. Mantel analysis further showed that soil carbon and nitrogen content and microbial biomass carbon were significantly positively correlated with microbial necromass carbon content. Conclusions The results of this study revealed the important role of vegetation restoration on soil organic carbon content and its stability.