Effects of land use and land abandonment on labile organic carbon (LOC) in whole soils and different aggregate sizes were studied by sampling analysis of the soils in some typical land uses of the Karst region, southwest China. Results showed that the content and degree of dispersion of labile organic carbon decreased with soil depth, and the content of LOC was highly significant (P < 0.01) in 0-10 cm than in 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm. In the 0-10 cm soil layer, the content of LOC distribution in different aggregates was higher in the < 0.25 mm size, while no obvious changes of LOC among aggregates were found in the 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm depths. In different land use patterns, the LOC was the highest in paddy whether in whole soils or aggregates, followed by shrub, and the lowest in abandoned 3 years grassland. Within-between principal component analysis showed that the accumulation characters between land use and LOC were in the order of paddy > shrub > abandoned 15 years grassland = dry land > abandoned 3 years grassland, the content of LOC increased by 20.3% as compared to dryland, and had reached 80% of the content of shrub in abandoned 15 years grassland at the 0-10 cm depth, indicating that at the early stage of land abandonment, the natural recovery of carbon is relatively slow, while with the abandonment time increase, the carbon sink effect gradually appear.