Natural secondary forests play a crucial role in the subalpine forests of the upper reaches Minjiang River in the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. However, the knowledge about influence of litter on soil respiration remain inadequately understood for the secondary forests. In order to evaluate the impact of litter on soil respiration under different natural secondary forests in subalpine area of western Sichuan Province, China. Aboveground litter manipulation experiment was carried out in three natural secondary forests including Abies faxoniana secondary coniferous forest, Betula albo-sinensis+Acer davidii+A. faxoniana secondary mixed broadleaf-conifer forest, and A.davidii+B.albo-sinensis+Sorbus koehneana Schneid broad-leaved forest by natural alternation after timber exploitation in 1960s in Jiabigou forest zone of Miyaluo town. Litter treatments consisted of control (CK, litter inputs un-allowed), no litter (aboveground litter excluded), and double litter (aboveground litter doubled by adding litter removed) in September 2018. Soil respiration rates were measured using automated CO₂ efflux systems (LI-COR 8100A) about every two weeks during the growing season in 2019 (May to October). During the experimental period, the litter addition and exclusion did not significantly affect soil temperature and moisture, respectively. Soil respiration rates among three forest types showed no significant difference. Soil respiration rate of the litter exclusion was 17.65%, 21.01%, 19.83% lower than that of control treatment (P<0.05) of the secondary coniferous forest, secondary mixed broadleaf-conifer forest and broad-leaved forest, respectively. While the soil respiration rate of litter addition was 6.76%, 7.28%, and 8.16% higher (P>0.05) in the three forest types, respectively. There was a significantly exponential correlation between soil respiration and soil temperature in all treatments (P<0.01), while no correlation was found with soil moisture. The Q₁₀ of control were 2.01-3.29. Compared with the control, the litter exclusion decreased all Q₁₀ in three forests, while the litter addition increased the Q₁₀ in the secondary coniferous forest, but decreased in secondary mixed broadleaf-conifer forest and secondary broad-leaved forest instead. The regression analysis indicates that soil pH, soil organic matter, dissolved organic nitrogen and Pielou index of herb layer had significant correlation with soil respiration rate in control plots of the natural secondary forests, respectively. It could be seen that the contribution of aboveground litter to soil respiration and Q₁₀ in broad-leaved forest and mixed broadleaf-conifer forest were higher than those in coniferous forest. Additionally, the magnitude of the increase did not match up with the doubling of litter inputs, indicating that under elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration and temperature, the increased aboveground litter may be advantageous to the forest soil carbon sequestration in coniferous forest.