Quantifying soil respiration components and their relations to environmental controls is essential to estimates of both local and regional carbon budgets of forest ecosystems. In this study, we used trenching-plot and infrared gas exchange analyzer approaches to determine heterotrophic (Ｒ_Ｈ) and autotrophic respiration (Ｒ_A) in soil surface CO２ flux for six major temperate forest ecosystems in northeastern China. The ecosystems were: Mongolian oak forest (dominated by Quercus mongolica), poplar-birch forest (dominated by Populous davidiana and Betula platyphylla), mixed-wood forest (composed of P. davidiana, B. platyphylla, Fraxinus mandshurica, Tilia amurensis, Acer amono, etc.), hard-wood forest (dominated by F. mandshurica, Juglans mandshurica, and Phellodendron amurense), Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) and Dahurian larch (Larix gmelinii) plantations, representing typical secondary forest ecosystems in this region. Our specific objectives were to: (1) quantify Ｒ_Ｈ and its relationships with environmental factors for the forest ecosystems, (2) characterize seasonal dynamics in the contribution of root respiration to total soil surface CO２ flux (Ｒ_Ｃ), and (3) compare annual CO_２ fluxes from Ｒ_Ｈ and Ｒ_Ａ among the six forest ecosystems. Soil temperature, Soil water content, and their interactions significantly affected Ｒ_Ｈ in the ecosystems, and explained 46.5％～78.8% variations in Ｒ_Ｈ. However, the environmental controlling factors of Ｒ_Ｈ varied with ecosystem types: soil temperature in hardwood and Dahurian larch forest ecosystems, soil temperature and water content in the others. The Ｒ_Ｃ for hardwood, poplar-birch, mixed-wood, Mongolian oak, Korean pine and Dahurian larch forest ecosystems varied between 32.40％～51.44%, 39.72％～46.65%, 17.94％～47.74%, 34.31％～37.36%, 33.78％～37.02%, 14.39％～35.75%, respectively. The annual CO_２ fluxes from Ｒ_Ｈ were significantly greater than that from Ｒ_Ａ for all the ecosystems, ranging from 337～540 gC•m－２•a^－１ and 88～331 gC•m^－２•a^－１ for ＲＨ and Ｒ_Ａ, respectively. The annual CO_２ fluxes from Ｒ_Ｈ and Ｒ_Ａ differed significantly among the six forest ecosystems.