Three typical paddy soils, hydragric paddy soil, bleached paddy soil and gleyed paddy soil, collected from the Taihu Lake region were used to investigate effect of acid rain on adsorption and desorption of copper by soils by using simulation and incubation approaches.Results indicated that when soils were leached with simulated acid rain, copper adsorption capacity of all three soils increased as compared to that of the un-leached control soils.Lower pH of leaching solution tended to bring about smaller increment in adsorption capacity.The amount of Cu released from the fraction of the KNO₃-extractable Cu was increased with the decrease in pH of the leaching solution, suggesting that soils suffering from acid rain leaching decreased their capability to buffer the heavy metals pollution.Soils with large adsorption capacity such as hydragric paddy soil and gleyed paddy soil were more heavily affected by simulated acid rain than the soils with small adsorption capacity (e.g.bleached paddy soil).