Soil respiration is one of the main terrestrial contributors to CO₂ fluxes in the global carbon cycle. Understanding how grazing exclusion affects carbon exchange is essential for clarifying the contribution of grassland management to the carbon budget. The Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, with average altitude above 4000 m, is an extensive alpine zone and a sensitive area of climate change and ecological fragile zone. This experiment studied effects of grazing exclusion on soil respiration for a growing-season, August 2015. We conducted our research in an alpine grassland along a southwest-facing slope on the Qilian Mountains in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, and set four sites (fenced since 2006) on the slope along an altitudinal gradient, at 3600, 3800, 4000 and 4200m. This alpine grassland along the slope is often an important pasture for summer grazing of Tibetan sheep and yaks from June to October. At each altitude, we decided the study site at a relatively gentle slope, so as to reduce impact from topographical heterogeneity. We use Closed Chamber Method to measure the soil respiration.In this study, we show and discuss the effect of the grazing exclusion to soil respiration.