In order to investigate the effects of different tillage patterns on soil respiration in dry cropping farmland in purple hilly region in southwest China, the LI6400-09 respiratory chamber was adopted in the experiment conducted in the experimental field in Southwest University in Beibei District of Chongqing. The soil respiration rate and the soil hydrothermal and biotic factors were measured during the growth period of maize in the triple intercropping system of wheat/maize/soybean. There were six treatments including T (traditional tillage), R (ridge tillage), TS (traditional tillage + straw mulching), RS (ridge tillage + straw mulching), TSD (traditional tillage + straw mulching + decomposing inoculants), and RSD (ridge tillage + straw mulching + decomposing inoculants), which were replicated for three times. The results indicated that the soil respiration rate was firstly increased and then decreased during the whole growth period of maize, with the variation range of 1.011-5.575 μmol m^-2 s^-1. There were significant differences of soil respiration rate among different treatments, which could be ranked as RSD > TSD > TS > RS > T > R. Ridge tillage reduced soil respiration in maize farmland, whereas straw mulching treatment was opposite. The treatment of straw mulching added with decomposing inoculants resulted in the highest soil respiration rate because of the high activity of microbial. The soil temperature in 10 cm layer was ranked as R > T > RSD > TSD > RS > TS. It was higher under ridge tillage than under straw mulching, while that under the treatment of straw mulching added with decomposing inoculants was in between the two above. The sensitive indicator of soil temperature (Q₁₀) was ranked as TS > TSD > RS=R > T > RSD. Ridge tillage and straw mulching treatments enhanced the sensitivity of soil temperature, but the influence of adding decomposing inoculants was uncertain. A high Q₁₀ meant that the decrease of soil temperature would lead to a big reduction in soil respiration. The straw mulching treatment could lower soil temperature and thus helped to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. The soil moisture in 5 cm layer was ranked as TSD > TS > RS > RSD > R > T. The response threshold of soil moisture was sorted as R < T < RS < RSD < TS < TSD, which varied within 11.98%-13.11%. The response threshold was improved by straw mulching but it was relatively low under ridge tillage. In a sense, under the condition of certain soil moisture, the soil respiration would be inhibited prematurely under ridge tillage. The dominant groups of soil animals in maize field were Collembola, Acarina and Diptera. Compared to the control, ridge tillage reduced the number of soil animals, but straw mulching increased it and improved the index of soil animal diversity. This indicated that soil tillage patterns had great impact on soil animals. Soil respiration was only related with the animals above soil surface. The more was the amount of animals being active above soil surface, the stronger was the soil respiration. In all the treatments, the correlation coefficient of R was the highest (r=1.000, P=0.017), followed by TS (r=0.915, P=0.029). However there was no remarkable relationship between soil animals and soil respiration under traditional tillage. The farmland system showed a carbon sequestration during the whole growth period of maize and the net carbon sink was 679.244-723.764 g(C)/m². Compared with the control, ridge tillage and straw mulching treatments increased carbon sequestration by as much as 2.91%-6.55%. It was concluded that conservation tillage paterns of ridge planting and straw mulching could improve the carbon sink in maize farmland ecosystem.