Abstract:Soil samples under different salt marsh vegetations in Yancheng coasta l wetland were collected, and their organic carbon (C) and total nitrogen (N) we re determined, aimed to analyze the influence of salt marsh vegetation on the sp atial distribution of soil carbon and nitrogen. The results showed that the orga nic C and total N contents in top soils varied from 171 to 792 g·kg-1 and from 017 to 036 g·kg-1, respectively, and there were significant differences among different vegetation zones. The top soils organic C and total N contents in vegetation zones were higher than those in mudflat without vegeta tion. In the soil profiles in vegetation zones, organic C and total N contents h ad a trend of decreasing with depth, but changed little below the depth of 15 cm . Soil organic C was significantly positively correlated with soil total N and C /N, but soil total N had no significant correlation with soil C/N.