A vegetation evolution model influenced by a degeneration of soil ecological functions was set up. Three ideal communities of a) trees, b) shrubs, and c) herbage populations were first simulated. Then numerical simulations of the evolutionary and developmental processes of a natural forest community, which is composed of over 100 species,were conducted. Results of the study showed that a) in all communities, soil degeneration not only drove some weaker species to extinction, but also a few dominant ones; b) there were different response scales with species in an ideal tree metapopulation that could persist as long as a thousand years, with shrubs in an ideal shrub metapopulation that could persevere for several hundred years, and with species in an ideal herbage metapopulation that could become extinct within 10 years; and c) each metapopulation experienced three evolutionary stages during adaptation to the environment: a) the stage of compelled adaptation or resistance, b) the adjusted stage, and c) the stabilized stage.