The microbial community structure and nitrogen cycle of high-altitude pristine saline lakes on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

The nitrogen (N) cycle is the foundation of the biogeochemistry on Earth and plays a crucial role in global climate stability. It is one of the most important nutrient cycles in high-altitude lakes. The biogeochemistry of nitrogen is almost entirely dependent on redox reactions mediated by microorganisms. However, the nitrogen cycling of microbial communities in the high-altitude saline lakes of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), the world's "third pole" has not been investigated extensively. In this study, we used a metagenomic approach to investigate the microbial communities in four high-altitude pristine saline lakes in the Altun mountain on the QTP. We observed that