Abstract: Soil carbon pools play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems and are important for regulating atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and maintaining the global carbon balance. Soil organic carbon is the most important component of the soil carbon pool and is an important indicator of soil quality in ecosystems. This study takes the Manas River Basin on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang as the research area to explore the spatial and vertical distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon in typical land use types, as well as the main influencing factors of spatial distribution. The results showed that the spatial distribution of soil organic carbon content showed a decreasing trend from south to north, manifesting as mountainous area (17.34 g∙kg⁻¹) > mountain front (11.57 g∙kg⁻¹) > plain oasis (10.22 g∙kg⁻¹) > desert (6.69 g∙kg⁻¹); the vertical distribution continued to decrease with the increase of soil depth, decreasing from 16.08 g∙kg⁻¹ (0−5 cm) to 7.91 g∙kg⁻¹ (40−60 cm).Pearson correlation analysis showed that soil organic carbon was significantly positively correlated (P<0.001) with elevation, total nitrogen, alkaline hydrolyzed nitrogen, available phosphorus, and available potassium, and significantly negatively correlated (P<0.001) with pH and bulk weight. The structural equation model path analysis shows that altitude, total nitrogen, alkaline nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, pH, bulk density, and water content directly affect soil organic carbon content; Altitude affects the pH and bulk density of total nitrogen and alkaline nitrogen, pH affects total nitrogen and alkaline nitrogen, and water content indirectly affects soil organic carbon content by affecting bulk density. The spatial distribution pattern of organic carbon in soil samples in the Manas River Basin is mainly influenced by environmental factors such as temperature and precipitation, and shows the same spatial gradient changes with altitude. The fertile soil and cold and humid climate in mountainous areas are conducive to maintaining and increasing the high organic carbon content in the region. The vegetation coverage in desert areas is low, and there is not enough litter and plant roots as a source of organic matter. However, human factors such as changes in land use patterns, land management measures, and agricultural development in plain oasis areas have also had a profound impact on the distribution of soil organic carbon. This study comprehensively analyzed the effects of different topographic climates, land use types and soil physicochemical properties on the distribution of organic carbon content in the study area, which can provide an important theoretical basis for ecological and environmental management related to carbon balance in arid and semi−arid regions.