Black carbon, an important component of organic carbon, produced by incomplete combustion of biomass or fossil fuels. Black carbon was produced by natural and anthropogenic sources and emitted into atmosphere. As an important component of the atmospheric aerosols, the black carbon could transport to other regions through atmospheric transition, and deposited on the surface of the marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Wetlands covered 1/5 of the earth's surface, and regarded as an important stable carbon pool for global carbon cycle. The big surface areas of black carbon particles might lead several kinds of organic pollutants and microorganism absorbed on black carbon particles. High contents of black carbon in the soil might change the soil environment and influence the carbon emission rates. Because the black carbon is more stable than other kinds of organic carbon, to estimate the contents of black carbon in the wetlands is essential for assess the importance of wetland carbon pool for global carbon cycle. Wetlands with peat accumulation are one kind of ideal deposition archives, and could be used to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental conditions. More and more studies were focused on the black carbon in the wetlands, and it is found that black carbon contents in the wetlands were influenced by fire activities, plants communities and climate conditions. The natural sources of the black carbon were mainly from local biomass combustion, and biomass combustion could lead both of black carbon contents and fluxes increasing. Therefore, the black carbon could be used to reconstructed wildfire activities during the historical period. The cool and drought climate condition could lead high frequency of wildfire. Cooling temperature could promote the plants growing and the wildfire was occurred at drought conditions, and led to the black carbon fluxes increased clearly during this period. With the long-term climate changing, the types and coverage of plants communities might also change, which could be reflected by the black carbon fluxes and other climate proxies. However, with the increasing of population and intensity of human activities, the proportions of the black carbon produced by human activity were increasing and human activities became the important influencing factor. The fossil fuels consumption increasing led to the black carbon contents and fluxes were increased rapidly and much higher than those in hundreds of years before. In recent 150 years, the black carbon produced by wildfire could be consider as the natural background, the peak values and trends of the black carbon fluxes could be used to reflected historical human activities (e.g. land reclamation, cooking). With more black carbon produced by human activities deposited in the wetlands ecosystem, the contents of black carbon in the wetlands increasing and might influence the carbon cycle in the wetlands. Hence, the black carbon research is important for carbon cycle, and could provide a guide to human in the future. In this paper, we reviewed the recently black carbon studies in wetlands, e.g. the black carbon sources, contents, measurements; compared the black carbon contents or fluxes in the wetlands with other ecosystem (e.g. lakes, forest soils). Based on this review, we want to let readers better to understand the black carbon in the wetlands and its environmental implication. For example, how the climate, plant communities influence on wildfire occurring frequency and the black carbon fluxes; the relationship of the black carbon and total organic carbon; and the implication of the black carbon on pyrolysis organic pollutants and soil environment. Based on the existed questions, propose some suggestions about how to research on black carbon in wetlands in the future.