As an important component of ecosystem carbon（C） budgets, soil carbon dioxide（CO2） flux is determined by a combination of a series of biotic and abiotic processes. Although there is evidence showing that the abiotic component can be important in total soil CO2 flux（R（total））, its relative importance has never been systematically assessed. In this study, after comparative measurements of CO2 fluxes on sterilized and natural soils, the R（total） was partitioned into biotic flux（R（biotic）） and abiotic flux（R（abiotic）） across a broad range of land-cover types（including eight sampling sites： cotton field, hops field, halophyte garden, alkaline land, reservoir edge, native saline desert, dune crest and interdune lowland） in Gurbantunggut Desert, Xinjiang, China. The relative contribution of R（abiotic） to R（total）, as well as the temperature dependency and predominant factors for R（total）, R（biotic） and R（abiotic）, were analyzed. Results showed that R（abiotic） always contributed to R（total） for all of the eight sampling sites, but the degree or magnitude of contribution varied greatly. Specifically, the ratio of R（abiotic） to R（total） was very low in cotton field and hops field and very high in alkaline land and dune crest. Statistically, the ratio of R（abiotic） to R（total） logarithmically increased with decreasing R（biotic）, suggesting that R（abiotic） strongly affected R（total） when R（biotic） was low. This pattern confirms that soil CO2 flux is predominated by biotic processes in most soils, but abiotic processes can also be dominant when biotic processes are weak. On a diurnal basis, R（abiotic） cannot result in net gain or net loss of CO2, but its effect on transient CO2 flux was significant. Temperature dependency of R（total） varied among the eight sampling sites and was determined by the predominant processes（abiotic or biotic） of CO2 flux. Specifically, R（biotic） was driven by soil temperature while
