The study on the dynamic changes of desert lakes is of great significance for revealing the regional water cycle and understanding the desert ecological environment. In this paper， 10 Landsat TM/OLI remote sensing images covering the Kubuqi Desert from 1986 to 2020 were used to extract desert lakes. The number and area changes of desert lakes in each period were counted， and the spatial characteristics of the number and area changes of desert lakes in the Kubuqi Desert were analyzed. The results showed that the number and area of lakes in Kubuqi Desert showed a decreasing trend， with 22 existing lakes and an area of 7.4678 km². From 1986 to 2020， a total of 26 lakes in the Kubuqi Desert were dried up. Many small lakes in the existing lakes showed an increasing trend， but the area was small， which had little impact on the entire Kubuqi Desert lake. Daqinglong Lake， Swan Lake and Dadaotu Lake in >1 km² lakes all show a shrinking state，with a large reduction， which had a greater impact on the entire Kubuqi Desert lake. The relationship between lake area and precipitation，temperature and evaporation is not significant.The spatial characteristics of lake area changes may be caused by different sources of recharge in different lake areas， differences in lake recharge methods， and human factors.