Abstract  [Aim]  To assess the effects of burning vegetation and land reclamation practices on the soil collembola community composition and diversity in a Karst district, and thereby assess the degree of ecological degradation of this community resulting from such disturbance. [Methods]  A burned area (representing fire disturbance), farmland (representing agricultural activity), a post-fire commercial forest (representing post-fire reclamation) and a Pinus massoniana plantation (control) were chosen as study sites in southern Guizhou province. The soil collembola communities of each site were investigated using the Tullgren method in October 2016 and in January and April 2017. [Results]  A total of 1 836 individual soil collembola were collected. The dominant families were the Isotomidae and Onychiuridae which comprised 79.63% of the total. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicates that soil collembolan community composition in the P. massoniana plantation differed significantly from that in the disturbed sites. The richness and Shannon-Wiener index (H') of soil collembola in the P. massoniana plantation were significantly higher than in the burned area, farmland or post-fire commercial forest (P<0.05). The Shannon-Wiener index (H') of the P. massoniana plantation was significantly greater in autumn and winter than in spring (P<0.05). Richness, density and Shannon-Wiener index (H') were significantly and positively correlated with TK (P<0.05), and there was also a significant positive correlation between the density of soil collembola and AK (P<0.05). Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that AK significantly affected the distribution of the soil collembolan community. [Conclusion]  Burning, agriculture and post-fire reclamation decreased the richness and diversity of soil collembola in southern Guizhou.