Abstract: The red soil located at Yuchi village, Fujian province, was sampled to investigate the effect of sod culture on mineralization of soil organic carbon (SOC) using laboratory incubation and field measurements. There was a similar diurnal fluctuation in soil respiration rate under the treatments of sod culture and clean tillage. In addition, there were highly significant correlations between soil respiration and soil temperature, C/N, and significant correlations between soil respiration and soil moisture, humic acid (HA), fulvic acid (FA), HA/FA values and total SOC. The average soil mineralization rate under sod cultivation treatment was 22.890 mg/(kg·d), was increased by 62.13％ and 33.83％ compared with those under longitudinal clean tillage and landings clean tillage treatments, respectively. When compared with those under the longitudinal clean tillage and landings clean tillage, soil respiration rate, potential mineralizable SOC (C₀), easily mineralizable SOC content (C₁) and initial potential mineralization rate (C₀k) under sod culture treatment were significantly higher, showing that sod cultivation in orchards can increase soil respiration and soil organic carbon turnover, and be conducive to the transformation of soil carbon and nitrogen and the improvement of soil fertility. It also showed that there was no significant increase in the ratio of C₀ to SOC in sod cultivation compared with the clean tillage treatments. This suggests that orchard sod cultivation is also conducive to the accumulation of organic carbon in the soil.