Abstract: Clarifying the role and extent of geological formation affecting soil properties will help establish the relationship between geological background and ecological environment, and provide theoretical support for geological work to serve the construction of ecological civilization. Taking the red soil formed on six geological formations in the Xichang area as an example, this paper systematically analyzed the contents of plant nutrient elements and heavy metals in bedrock and red soil of each geological formation. Meanwhile, the physical and chemical properties of red soil such as texture and pH value are also analyzed. The results show that the contents of nutrient elements and heavy metals in soil are linearly and positively correlated with the contents of corresponding elements in underlying geological formations (except for S, N, As), and the correlation coefficient R squared is concentrated in 0.54～0.97. There are significant differences in the nutrient element abundance, heavy metal pollution risk, texture, acidity of the red soil formed in different geological formations, indicating that geological formations can effectively restrict the properties of the overlying soil in many aspects. Considering the universality of the restriction of geological formation on soil properties, this paper puts forward that the ecological geological survey in mountainous and hilly areas can be based on the path of "geological formation–soil properties–ecological environment". The specific working method is also discussed in this paper.