///This paper deals with the mechanism of ammonium adsorption, with emphasis placed on the process of the adsorption, the contribution of different fractions of soils to the adsorption and the forms of the ammonium in soils. The results were obtained: 1) in the isothermal adsorption experiment, the ammonium adsorbed by the tested soils was fitted well with Langmuir adsorption isotherm and the adsorption maximum reached 435 mg/kg at the temperature of 298 K; 2) the ammonium adsorbed on the tested soils comprised three forms i.e., soluble ammonium, exchangeable ammonium and fixed ammonium; and 3) on the basis of the amount of ammonium extracted by different extractants, the positions occupied by different forms of ammonium in the clay were also different. These findings show that the risk of groundwater contamination caused by different forms of ammonium would be different correspondingly.