Terrace abandonment profoundly impacts karst soil hydrology, yet the critical pore-scale mechanisms driving these changes remain elusive. In this study, the effects of different abandonment patterns on soil properties and hydrological processes were investigated using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology and field experiments across four land use types, namely, cropland (CR), grassland (GR), shrubland (SH), and forestland (FR), which represent successive abandonment stages in Guizhou Province, China. The results revealed that abandonment substantially enhanced soil hydrological function: compared with that in cropland, saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) in shrubland and forestland increased by 83.79 % in shrubland and 82.8 %, respectively. Notably, compared with grassland, shrubland achieved the highest water transport capacity, with a performance that was 336.9 % greater. NMR analysis indicated that vegetation recovery fostered finer, better-connected pore networks, reducing the average pore radius by up to 38.34 % and increasing the total porosity to 40.91 % in forestland deep layers (40-60 cm). Differential rainfall responses were observed, with surface soil moisture increasing most significantly in grassland (+5.55 %) and shrubland (+3.59 %) under moderate precipitation, whereas deep soil layers experienced substantial recharge during low precipitation events (cropland: +30.3 %, shrubland: +15.55 %). These findings elucidate the ecohydrological mechanisms of terrace abandonment and inform restoration strategies for karst water management.