Soil carbon stock in forest ecosystem is the essential part of the terrestrial ecosystem carbon pools.Soil respiration is considered as a critical approach for soil carbon stock to enter the terrestrial carbon cycling,which is comprehensively regulated by numerous biotic and abiotic factors.Episodic precipitation could induce a sudden increase in soil moisture in forests,and thus cause a rapid enhancement of soil respiration.In this study,we introduce soil respiration and its components,and then summarize the characteristic of rainfall pulse effect and corresponding inducing mechanism (including physical replacement,microbial metabolization,soil nutrient regulation,and photochemistry regulation).We analyze the shortcomings in the current research on precipitation pulse effect and prospect its future development direction.It is argued that forest ecosystem is the key field of future precipitation pulse effect study,and the exploration of differential responses of the soil respiration components to precipitation pulse effect and the corresponding mechanism will be a highlight in the future study.