Effect of spatial heterogeneity in canopy openness and soil nutrients on soil microbial functional diversity was investigated following a huge ice storm in south China. Sixteen plots, each 400 m2, were selected for this study according to the damage degrees of the canopy within a 2 hm2 permanent plot, which had been set up within the storm\|hit montane evergreen broadleaved forest in Chebaling National Nature Reserve. Canopy openness was estimated with hemispherical photography, and a composite sample of surface soil (0-20 cm) was collected from each plot for the analyses of soil properties as well as microbial functional diversity using Biolog. In accordance with canopy openness groups, the activity, richness, diversity and evenness of soil microbial communities decreased with the canopy openness. Cluster analysis confirmed that the plot clusters had high consistency with the canopy openness groups, while Principal Component Analysis indicated that soil microbial functional diversity was significantly different among plots (Axis 1 and Axis 2: p<0.005). Redundancy analysis demonstrated that the combining effect of soil total phosphorus，total potassium，total nitrogen，available nitrogen，soil organic carbon，soil bulk density，total porosity and canopy openness had significant influence (p<0.005) on the utilization of sole carbon source by soil microbial community, with canopy openness as the major factor. Soil microbial functional diversity was positively correlated with soil organic carbon and total nitrogen and negatively with available nitrogen and total phosphorus. These findings suggested that changes in canopy structure and soil nutrients following the ice storm might affect soil microbial functional diversity, thus these functional traits of microbial communities can be used as indicators to monitor and evaluate habitat restoration.