[Objective] The impacts of thermokarst lakes formed by rapid thawing and collapsing of permafrost on soil carbon and microorganisms were studied in order to provide a reference for the study of ecological environment and greenhouse gas emissions in such landform types.[Methods] This paper comprehensively analyzed the research progress of domestic and foreign scholars on the formation and distribution of thermokarst lakes and its effects on soil carbon cycle and microorganisms in recent years using 418 literatures on carbon and microorganisms of thermokarst lakes from 1990 to 2021 in the Web of Science core database.[Results] The main issues currently facing in this field were insufficient identification of small thermokarst lakes, lack of long-term monitoring data of thermokarst lakes, and the need to fully consider the methane cycle process (methane generation and methane oxidation).[Conclusion] In the future, we should use multiple models and additional control variables to assess and predict changes in thermokarst lakes and greenhouse gas emissions, supplement the missing data by high-precision remote sensing images and drone images and a large number of field measurements, and strengthen the study about the effects of the formation and evolution of thermokarst lakes on microbial communities and their ecological functions.