The distribution of salt lakes in Xinjiang is broad but uneven. The carbon cycle of the salt lake ecosystem is an important component and has an important impact on carbon equilibrium in the ecosystem of the arid region. However, the research on soil respiration in salt lakes in the arid region is relative weak. A study was conducted in order to explore soil respiration and its influential factors of different plant communities along the Salt Lake in Dabancheng of Xinjiang. Aeluropus pungens,Iris tectorum , Achnatherum splendens, Lycium ruthenicum Murr were taken as the main plant objects with the abandoned farmland around as the control, soil respiration were measured by LI-COR 8100 (Li-COR, Lincoln, NE, USA). The results showed soil respiration of Salt Lake coastal had obvious diurnal variation and appeared in the pattern of single peak, the highest point occurred at 13:00 while the lowest occurred at around 07:00. The rates of soil respiration ranged from 1.77 to 3.48 μmol/(m²·s) in CK and from 0.89 to 4.34 μmol/(m²·s) under different communities, with an order of Lycium ruthenicum Murr＞Aeluropus pungens＞Achnatherum splendens＞Abandoned Land＞Iris tectorum. Underground biomass influenced soil CO₂ emissions, the daily average CO₂ emission flux of soil respiration in the study region was 209.28 mg/(m²·d). Soil temperature at 5 cm depth had significant correlation with soil respiration rate, which is the dominant factor in determining the diurnal variation of soil respiration and could explain 69%-78% of it. TheQ₁₀ values calculated based on soil temperature at 5 cm depth were 2.30, 1.24, 1.20, 1.57, and 1.28, soil respiration was most sensitive to soil temperature under Aeluropus pungens. Except for abandoned land, there were significantly negative correlation (R² = 0.38-0.51) between soil respiration and soil moisture. The above results disclosed further soil respiration variation and influential factors of Slat Lake ecosystem in the arid region, which is helpful in estimating carbon equilibrium and sequestration.