To date, there are no consistent conclusions on the response of soil respiration of terrestrial ecosystem to climatic warming, which s likely due to the significant differences among the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration components and abiotic/biotic factors affecting soil respiration. This study systematically summarized the influencing mechanisms of warming on the soil respiration components in a Sibiraea angustata scrubland on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. We found that warming directly increased soil heterotrophic respiration and root respiration due to the significant increase in physiological activity of soil microbial community and plant root system. Simultaneously, warming influenced the rates of soil respiration components by changing the abiotic factors. For example, warming resulted in the significant increase in soil nutrient contents and enzyme activities, which indirectly increased soil respiration. While the decreased soil moisture caused by warming did not enough to inhibit soil respiration. Moreover, warming changed plant community production and soil microbial community structure, such as increased in plant fine root production, mortality and decomposition and soil microbial biomass and activities in the bulk soil, which indirectly influenced soil respiration rates. Furthermore, warming caused the transition of soil microbial functional groups to Gram-positive bacteria and actinomycetes. This phenomenon might lead to the acceleration of soil microbial utilization of soil recalcitrant organic carbon. Due to the higher available carbon contents in the rhizosphere soil, warming had no significant effect on rhizomicrobial respiration and rhizomicrobial community. This shows that climatic warming will affect the carbon release process by changing the abiotic/biotic factors relate to soil respiration in the alpine scrubland on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. These results will improve our understanding of soil carbon cycling process under global climatic warming in these alpine scrub ecosystems.