Abstract: In order to study the retention rates of nitrogen and phosphorus during river transportation, this article reviewed the methodologies for estimating retention of those two nutrients. The results showed that: mass balance method, empirical models and isotope technology were often used for study the nitrogen and phosphorus retention in riverine ecosystem. However, some defects were still existed in the present studies, such as parameters in empirical models were always not suitable for various rivers, results estimated by empirical models exhibited the bigger errors, multiple isotope technology was rarely used, though those methods were widely used. Thus establishing more accruable models that integrating various environmental factors into consideration, and reducing the effects on δ value of isotope by biogeochemical processes would be the important researching field.