The spatial patterns of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) are the important components of the co-evolution mechanisms of vegetation and soil nutrient. However, the changes occurring in these spatial patterns during the process of vegetation restoration are poorly documented, especially in southwest China, a region suffering from severe land degradation. Based on soil sampling at the fixed points, we compared the spatial pattern changes of SOC and TN from 2005 (in initial stages of restoration) to 2014 in a typical small karst catchment undergoing rock desertification control for 10 years. The spatial pattern was analyzed using the grid sampling method (20m×20m space) with which we collected 528 and 504 samples in 2005 and 2014, respectively. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) comparison showed that the average SOC values in 2014 (18.6g/kg) were significantly higher than those in 2005 (16.5g/kg), but the average TN values showed no significant change after 10 years. The cluster analysis suggested that the high-value clustering points of SOC and TN were changed from the dry land at the toe of slope and abandoned land in 2005 to abandoned land in 2014. Conversely, the low-value clustering points were always located on the dry land at the center of depression in the past decade. The estimation of the spatial pattern of the studied SOC and TN were performed by the geostatistical analyses using semivariograms to determine the average variance between the samples collected (semivariance) at increasing distances from one another. The results showed the semivariograms of SOC were both fitted to a spherical model between 2005 and 2014. However, the exponential model of TN turned into the spherical model following the vegetation restoration after 10 years. The sill and range values of the semivariogram functions for SOC were greater in 2014 than those in 2005, but shorter for TN. We found that the process of vegetation restoration could lead to an increase in the spatial heterogeneity and patches for SOC, but a decrease in the spatial heterogeneity and patches for TN. This indicated that the influence of parent material and the pattern of vegetation on SOC and random factors on TN were growing increasingly during vegetation restoration in the typical karst catchment. We conclude that afforestation increased both the SOC content and its spatial heterogeneity, but slightly changed the TN content and decreased its spatial heterogeneity after ecosystem restoration for 10 years in the karst areas of southwest China. Moreover, the native vegetation and the cultivated land transformed to native vegetation were the high-value clustering points at the study catchment during 2005-2014. In addition, the human disturbance intensity is an important factor controlling the low-value clustering points in the past decade. Our findings could provide the scientific basis for determining the optimal land use structure and sustainable restoration of ecosystem.