A central focus of biogeography is to determine the factors that govern spatial variation in biodiversity.Classic biogeography pattern of maeroorganisms along altitudinal gradients was observed and studied well over two centuries ago, while elevation patterns of microbes remains poorly understood.Using functional gene microarray (geochip) and pryosequencing methods, we examined the soil bacterial diversity pattern within alpine wetlands alone an elevational gradient on the Tibetan Plateau.We found that observed patterns of plant and microbial diversity decreased monotonically from the lowest to the highest elevations.Our results showed the richness of genes involved in carbon and nitrogen cycling were significantly decreased with increasing elevations and the gene abundance of carbon degradation and nitrogen cycling were also decreased at high latitude which was consistent with soil enzyme activities.Further statistical tests showed that microbial functional diversities are structured primarily by environmental filtering caused by temperature.This work indicated that temperature maybe the common driving force structuring bacterial communities along elevational gradients on the Tibetan Plateau