The concentrations of different phosphorus (P) species and four kinds of bioavailable P (algae-available P, AAP; Olsen P, OLP; water-soluble P, WSP; and readily desorbable P, RDP) were determined to investigate the relationship between phosphorus bioavailability and phosphorus speciation in sediments from rural rivers in Taihu Lake area, China, using a European Commission “Standards Measurements and Testing Program” protocol and four chemical extraction techniques. The total P and inorganic P concentrations in the sediments were 179-2,293 mg/kg and 137-1,857 mg/kg, respectively. The concentrations of the P species in the sediments followed the order NaOH- extractable P > HCl-extractable P > organic P. The bioavailable P concentrations followed the order AAP (340 mg/kg) > OLP (38.7 mg/kg) > WSP (1.8 mg/kg) > RDP (0.3 mg/kg). Regression analyses showed that there were good correlations between the P species concentrations and the bioavailable P concentrations measured using the four different methods, except for between WSP and the HCl-extractable P concentrations. The OLP concentrations had highly significant correlations with AAP, WSP, RDP and the P species concentrations. The OLP method was found to be most suitable for determining the bioavailability of P species under the prevalent geochemical conditions in the rural river sediments that were analyzed.