Display omitted •Salinity affects the nitrogen and sulfur conversion performance of DSSADN process.•The highest production rates of nitrite and S0 were observed at 2.5% salinity.•The production rate of nitrite and S0 decreased gradually with salinity higher than 3%.•The species of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria were more abundant in high salt environment. Double short-cut sulfur autotrophic denitrification (DSSADN) coupled with Anammox is of great significance in the low-carbon treatment of nitrogen-containing wastewater. In order to achieve high salinity autotrophic nitrogen removal, the effects of different salinities on the accumulation characteristics of NO2−-N and S0 and microorganisms in DSSADN process were studied. The results showed that the effect of salinity on the DSSADN process could be categorized into the stimulation, stable, and inhibition. When the salinity gradually increased to 2.5 %, the highest NO2−-N production rate (NiPR) and S0 production rate (S0PR) of DSSADN were 0.54 kg/(m3·d) and 1.1 kg/(m3·d) respectively. NiPR and S0PR gradually decreased as the salinity increased to more than 3 %. However, salinity had a relatively low impact on nitrite accumulation efficiency and S0 accumulation efficiency, which were 80 % and 81.5 %, respectively, when the salinity reached 5 %. Salinity has a great influence on the structure and abundance of microbial communities in the system.