Climate warming can directly or indirectly affect soil carbon cycling in a variety of ways. The response of soil carbon cycling to climate warming has been identified as one of the major sources of uncertainty in model projections of future climate change. In this paper, we discuss the responses and adaptation mechanisms of soil respiration to climate warming, and review recent advances on the responses of soil microorganisms (reactors of soil respiration) and soil organic carbon (substrate for soil respiration) to climate warming. We also explore the effects of the synergy between climate warming and other climate change factors, and the effects of the synergy between above- and below-ground components on soil carbon cycling. The main conclusions are summarized as follows: 1) autotrophic and heterotrophic components of soil respiration respond differently to climate warming. Autotrophic components, especially root respiration, are more sensitive to climate warming because of their dependence on photosynthesis; 2) soil respiration initially increases in response to warming and then declines. The decline can be attributed to thermal adaptation, substrate depletion, and nitrogen or soil moisture constraints; 3) the responses to climate warming vary among different kinds of microorganisms. Climate warming can induce changes in microbial physiology and even community structure, leading to the adaptation of soil respiration to climate warming; 4) soil organic matter decomposition is sensitive to climate warming. The temperature sensitivity of this decomposition is determined by chemical conformation (quality), environmental constraints (physico-chemical protection, drought, flooding, and freezing, which affect accessibility), and microbial physiology and enzyme production (efficiency). Finally, we discuss future developments in this research field: 1) soil microbial processes should be included in climate change models; 2) new molecular biological techniques such as stable-isotope probing and 'meta-omic' methods should be used for in-depth studies on soil microorganisms; 3) long-term experiments and field studies should investigate the combined effects of multiple climate change factors on soil carbon cycling; 4) there should be further systematic research on the interaction between above-ground and below-ground ecological processes.