To research community level stoichiometric characteristics of submerged macrophytes and their influencing factors,14 lakes along the mid-lower reaches of Yangtze River were investigated from June to August in 2014. Results showed that the average total carbon (C) contents of the communities were 386.93±25.80 mg/g and the concentrations of total C ranged from 315.98 to 441.97 mg/g. The average total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P) contents were 26.10±4.84 mg/g and 2.64±0.99 mg/g, respectively, and the concentrations of total N and P ranged from 13.75 to 40.89 mg/g and 1.01 to 5.92 mg/g, respectively.Compared with the researches at species level, variation coefficients of stoichiometric characteristics at community level in our study were much lower, indicating that community level stoichiometric homeostasis was stronger than that of species level. Community C contents were significant correlated with P contents, while had no relationship with N, indicating that coupling relations between element C and nutrient elements were inconsistent. Community N:P were significantly correlated with P contents, while had no relationship with N,indicating that N:P were controlled by P contents rather than by N. Redundancy analysis (RDA)result showed that environmental factors explained 30.2% of total variation of stoichiometric signatures. Sediment P, sediment N:P, water depth and light attenuation coefficient had significant impacts on community stoichiometric signatures. Results of variance partitioning showed that sediment and water column explained 5.21% and 10.19% of total variance, respectively. The interaction effects of sediment and water column explained 5.25% of total variance.Our results suggest that the control of light conditions of water column is more urgent than that of sediment in lake recovery of submerged vegetation.