Through retaining run off and pollutants such as heavy metals from surrounding landscapes, ponds around a lake play an important role in mitigating the impacts of human activities on lake ecosystems.In order to determine the potential for heavy metal accumulation of submerged macrophytes,we investigated the concentrations of 10 heavy metals(i.e.,As,Cd,Co,Cr,Cu,Fe,Mn,Ni,Pb,andZn)in water,sediments, and submerged macrophytes collected from 37 ponds around the Dianchi Lake in China. Our results showed that both water and sediments of the seponds were polluted by Pb.Water and sediments heavy metal concentrations in ponds received urban and agricultural run off were not significantly higher than those inponds received forest run off. This result indicates that alarge portion of heavy metals inthese ponds may originate from at mospheric deposition and weather in gof background soils.Positive relationships were found among heavy metal concentrations in submerged macrophytes, probably due to the coaccumulation of heavy metals.For most heavy metals,no significant relationships were found between submerged macrophytes and their water and sediment environments.The maximum concentrations of Cr,Fe and Ni in Ceratophyll umdemersum were4242,16,429 and 2662 mgkg1, respectively.There sult suggests that C. demersum is a good candidate species for removing heavy metals from polluted aquatic environments.