Abstract: Riparian zone, an important ecological ecotone between lake and terrestrial ecosystem, could effectively reduce and retain nutrient source. This study aimed to explore spatial and temporal distributions of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) under four different riparian zones of Dianchi Lake in Kunming city. The results showed that:(1) Average SOC and TN in four different riparian types were ranked from high to low as Populus yunnanensis (294 g/kg, 2.0 mg/kg)＞Taxodium ascendens (19.7 g/kg, 1.6 mg/kg)＞Salix babylonica (15.9 g/kg, 0.8 mg/kg)＞Cinnamomum camphora (10.8 g/kg, 0.5 mg/kg). (2) Spatiotemporal distributions of SOC and TN were different in four different riparian zones. No matter in the drought season or in the wet season, SOC and TN in the Populus yunnanensis, Taxodium ascendens and Cinnamomum camphora forested lands dropped along the soil layers deepen while there was an increase trend of SOC and TN in the Salix babylonica forested land. The influences of riparian vegetation types on soil SOC and TN were mainly in soil surface because SOC and TN in the Populus yunnanensis site were significantly higher than in the other three vegetation types in 0-10 cm but not in ≥20-30 cm soil layer. (3) TN in the riparian vegetation types had significantly positive correlation with SOC and soil water content. Therefore SOC and soil moisture were the important factors affecting the dynamics of soil nitrogen in the riparian zones of Dianchi Lake.