Spartina alterniflora was introduced into China in 1979 for promoting sedimentation and protecting seawall. It has become dominant in the intertidal zone of eastern coastal wetlands, and consequently posed significant impacts on the soil organic carbon pool of local wetlands in China. Current studies were focusing on the effects of S. alterniflora on soil organic carbon pool size, the input and output processes of soil organic carbon pool, the composition and fractions of soil organic carbon, the dynamics of soil organic carbon pool, etc. The present work summarized the effects of S. alterniflora on soil organic carbon pool in China's coastal wetland from the above aspects, and put forward suggestions on the future research direction. The key conclusions are as follows: The influence of S. alterniflora on soil organic carbon pool varied in different areas. The invasion of S. alterniflora to mudflat and Suaeda salsa saltmarsh in Jiangsu coastal wetlands promoted the soil organic carbon stock, yet remained lower than that of its native salt marsh in the US the invasion of S. alterniflora to Phragmites australias and mangroves saltmarsh in Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi coastal wetlands decreased the soil organic carbon stock. Generally, the settlement and expansion of S. alterniflora increased the emission of CO_2, CH_4, DMS and CS_2 in coastal wetlands, whereas promoted the absorption to haloalkanes. The effectiveness of S. alterniflora invasion on soil organic carbon pool depended on both biotic and abiotic factors including the structure of the ecosystems invaded, the varying environmental physical parameters, the characteristics of the competing species and the invasion stages termed as time course. Further efforts need to make for comprehensive evaluation of the effects of S. alterniflora on soil organic carbon pool in China on the following aspects: to set study sites at multiple climatic zones and to conduct long period monitoring; the mechanism of soil organic carbon accumulation under invasion by S. alterniflora; the coupling relationship between plant carbon pool and soil organic carbon pool; calculation of the soil organic carbon sequestration capacity; and the response to global change.