Abstract: To better understand the effect of disturbance in overlying water on nitrogen and phosphorus release from aquaculture pond sediments, we collected sediment samples from aquaculture ponds, designed laboratory experiments of nitrogen and phosphorus release in the condition of overlying water stirred mechanically for seven consecutive days at different stirring speeds, and measured concentrations of ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen and SRP in the overlying water and sediment pore water. The results showed that faster mechanical stirring increased the concentration of ammonia nitrogen at the early stage but in hydrodynamic conditions it was a short-term effect and a dynamic equilibrium between release and adsorption was gradually reached. A higher stirring speed promoted the release rate of nitrate nitrogen with a higher peak concentration, indicating the release rate of nitrate nitrogen from the pore water in dynamic ponds to be significantly different from that in the static pond case. The release rate of SRP was also increased to a certain degree by increasing the stirring speed. Fitting of pseudo-first-order kinetic equations to the process of SRP release reveals multiple correlation coefficients R2 greater than 0.92 and an extremely significant level (P < 0.01) of the equations fitted, showing a satisfactory representation of the process.