Water is the most important limiting factor in arid areas, and thus water resource management is critical for the health of dryland ecosystems. However, global climate change and anthropogenic activity make water resource management more difficult, and this situation may be particularly crucial for dryland restoration, because of variation in water uptake patterns associated with artificial revegetation of different ages and vegetation type. However, there is lacking long-term restorations that are suitable for studying this issue. In Shapotou area, Northwest China, artificial revegetation ar-eas were planted several times beginning in 1956, and now form a chronosequence of sand-binding landscapes that are ideal for studying variability in water uptake source by plants over succession. The stable isotopes δ18O and δ2H were employed to investigate the water uptake patterns of the typical revegetation shrubs Artemisia ordosica and Caragana korshinskii, which were planted in different years. We compared the stable isotope ratios of shrub stem water to groundwa-ter, precipitation, and soil water pools at five layers (5?10, 10?40, 40?80, 80?150, and 150?300 cm). The results indi-cate that Artemisia ordosica derived the majority of their water from the 20?150 cm soil layer, whereas Caragana kor-shinskii obtained water from the 40?150 cm soil layer. The main water sources of Artemisia ordosica and C. korshinskii plants changed over time, from deeper about 150 cm depth to shallow 20 cm soil layer. This study can provide insights into water uptake patterns of major desert vegetation and thus water management of artificial ecosystems, at least in Northwest China.