The invention discloses a river ecosystem function determination method, which is characterized by comprising the following steps in sequence: S1, preparing a determination device, S2, determining theposition of a monitoring station, and arranging an artificial substratum, S3, carrying out regular treatment and maintenance on the artificial substratum, S4, recovering the artificial substratum, and collecting a test sample, S5, determining related ecosystem function indexes. According to the invention, the method can complete monitoring of three different types of ecosystem functions (productivity, resolving power and stability) in the same period, so that multi-parameter data are provided for comprehensively evaluating and investigating the condition of the river ecosystem at the station,quantitative monitoring of ecosystem functions can be achieved, on the basis of further obtaining watershed water quality, hydrology, human activities and climate change parameters, the correspondingrelation of the ecosystem functions to environmental factors can be quantitatively analyzed, and powerful technical support is provided for evaluating ecosystem function health conditions of all monitoring stations and the whole watershed.