Soil ciliates are an important component of soil micro-biological system, and play an important role in the material cycle and energy flow of ecosystem. The study on seasonal variation characteristics of soil ciliate community in alpine meadow of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,which will help to understand the effects of regional and global changes on soil animal community structure and diversity, and provide scientific basis for the restoration and evaluation of degraded ecosystems. Typical samples were selected in April, July, September and December 2015 in Gannan alpine meadow. The number and density of soil ciliates were measured by "submerged culture dish method" and "living observation method". Soil water content,soil temperature, light intensity, pH value and soil nutrients were also measured. The results showed that there were significant differences of soil environmental factors in spring, summer, autumn and winter, and 97, 141, 105 and 78 ciliates were detected in four seasons. Among them, Spirotrichea and Litostomatea were the dominant group, and the Shannon-Wiener, Simpson and Pieluo index were relatively high in spring, Margalef index, species number and abundance were the highest in summer, and the vertical distribution of soil ciliates had surface accumulation. The redundancy analysis of soil ciliate community structure and environmental factors showed that soil temperature, total phosphorus content, light intensity and soil water content affected the distribution of soil ciliate community in Gannan alpine meadow, and soil temperature was the key limiting factor. The results are helpful for us to understand and predict the changes of soil ciliates' ecological functions in the nutrient cycle of the ecosystem in alpine meadow pasture areas.