The ligand exchange adsorption method uses the ability of transition metal ions to form complexes. By supporting the transition metal on a certain adsorbent carrier, and then using the special complexation between the target pollutant and the transition metal, the target pollutant is adsorbed on the adsorbent. A ligand-loaded adsorbent was prepared by supporting Cu2+ with a resin as a carrier for the high-salt ammonia?nitrogen wastewater, and the ammonia nitrogen was selectively adsorbed onto the resin by the coordination of Cu2+ and ammonia nitrogen. Ammonia nitrogen is adsorbed to the resin in two ways: one is through the combination of NH4+ and OH? to generate NH3, which is coordinated with Cu2+on the resin; the other is that NH3 reacts directly with Cu2+ on the resin, so that ammonia nitrogen can be adsorbed. In this work, resins with different functional groups were selected as supports, modified with Cu2+, and their performance in treating high-salt ammonia nitrogen wastewater was studied. On the basis of selecting the best copper resin, the effects of pH, Na+ concentration, resin dosage and reaction time on the adsorption of ammonia nitrogen by copper resin were studied. In order to further explore the process of coordination adsorption, SEM, EDS and adsorption kinetics model were used to characterize the copper resin before and after ammonia nitrogen adsorption. The results showed that Cu2+ could combine with chelating resin D751 stably and exhibited salt tolerance and good adsorption effect of ammonia?nitrogen under wide pH value. Under the conditions of room temperature (25℃), pH=11, Na+ concentration of 4 g/L, resin dosage of 8 g/L, reaction time 60 min, the removal rate of ammonia?nitrogen by D751 copper-loaded resin was 34.8%. After adsorption of ammonia nitrogen by D751 copper resin, crystal structure substance appeared on its surface, which may be copper ammonia complex. In addition, the adsorption kinetics of D751 copper resin for ammonia nitrogen containing high saline was in good agreement with quasi-second-order kinetic model.