Through retaining runoff 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 from37ponds around the Dianchi Lakein 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 anda gricultural runoff were not significantly higher than those inponds received forest runoff.This result indicates that alarge portion of heavy metals in these ponds may originate from atmospheric deposition and weather ingof background soils. Positive relationships were found among heavy metal concentrations in submerged macrophytes, probablydue to the co accumulation of heavymetals. Formost heavy metals, no significant relationships were found between submerged macrophytesand their water and sedimentenvironments.The maximum concentrations ofCr,FeandNiin Ceratophyllumdemersum were 4242,16,429 and 2662mgkg-1, respectively.The result suggests that C. demersum is a good candidate species for removing heavy metals from polluted aquatic environments.