The improvement of soil organic matter (SOM) is important for the maintenance of soil fertility,resistance to erosion and the mitigation of climate change.Soil organic matter is essentially derived from the microbial decomposition of plant residues,but the formation process of soil organic matter are not fully understood.This paper summarized studies on differentiating the contribution of microbial and plant derived constitutes in soil organic matter,and highlight the significance of microbial process on soil organic mattter turnover.