Human activities have been responsible for substantial land use changes, including the conversion of different ecosystems to tree plantations (thereafter plantations). Despite that these land use changes can have significant effects on hydrological processes in soils, a global perspective on how land use changes may impact soil water holding characteristics is still lacking. Here we performed a meta-analysis with 11078 paired observations collected from 330 peer-reviewed publications to assess how the conversion of croplands, deserts, grasslands, primary forests, secondary forests, shrublands, and bare lands to plantations might affect soil water content (WC), water holding capacity (WHC), saturated water content (SWC), and capillary holding water (CHW). We found that converting croplands to plantations significantly increased WHC and CHW by 14.4% and 30.1%, respectively. Converting deserts into plantations increased CHW by 25.3%, while converting grasslands to plantations increased WHC by 12.7%. The conversion of bare lands to plantations increased soil SWC and CHW by 37.7% and 41.5%, respectively. In contrast, cropland and grassland conversion to plantations decreased soil WC by 17.8% and 15.6%, respectively. The conversion of primary forests, secondary forests, and shrublands to plantations did not affect soil WC, WHC, SWC, or CHW. Finally, the effects of land use change on soil water holding characteristics were regulated by multiple moderator variables, with climate, geographical location, and tree species functional types being the most important. Overall, our quantitative analyses clearly showed how ecosystem conversion affected soil water holding characteristics at the global scale, which will help us to better understand and predict soil hydrological processes following land use changes under future global change. • Converting croplands and grasslands to plantations decreased soil water content by 17.8% and 15.6%, respectively. • Converting primary and secondary forests and shrublands to plantations did not affect soil water. • Climate, geographical location, and vegetation characteristics were the essential driving factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]