Abstract: By the method of taking space instead of time, an incubation test was conducted to study the characteristics of soil mineralizable carbon pool during the natural restoration of Karst forest vegetation in Maolan Nature Reserve, Guizhou Province of Southwest China. It was observed that the contents of soil total organic carbon (TOC) and mineralizable carbon (MC) as well as the carbon mineralization rate decreased with increasing soil depth but increased with the process of vegetation restoration. The amount of cumulative released carbon and the carbon release rate increased with the process of restoration, but the release rate decreased with increasing incubation time. The soil MC/TOC increased with the restoration process but had less change with increasing soil depth, while the qCO₂ decreased with increasing soil depth and through the process of restoration. The soil MC had a negative correlation with the existing litter amount (r=-0.796) but positive correlation with the mass loss rate of the litter decomposition (r=0.924). Soil habitat changed from strong interference at early stages to relative stability at late stages, and soil carbon sequestration changed from small capacity and strong potential at early stages to large capacity and weak potential at late stages.