Abstract: One of applications of wireless sensor networks is environmental monitoring for coal mine-underground. It needs data from sensor in mine to be routed to surface stations through soil or rock of mine tunnels, and represents a new challenge for wireless communication. The paper analyzed the problems which communication of underground wireless sensor networks is facing with, and demonstrated(that characteristic of underground channel depends on the properties of soil or rock, particularly humidity. In order to reducing dissipation of energy and overcoming high loss of underground channel,the paper put forward adaptation advice on the basis of analyzing the existing communication protocols of terrestrial wireless sensor networks. Furthermore,the paper presented a design method of cross-layered management protocol for improving efficiency and reliability of the communication networks.