• With the newly installed EAST lower W divertor, W source and edge transport are experimentally investigated for different Ne and D 2 gas injection conditions. • W erosion on the whole divertor target can be well suppressed or mitigated by suitable edge Ne or D 2 injection when divertor detachment is achieved. • A W screening enhancement is obtained during the attached divertor condition due to D 2 injection. • After the divertor detachment, the core W content is observed to be kept in a high level, although W source from the divertor is strongly reduced. Tungsten (W) erosion and edge transport are investigated for EAST L-mode discharges with different gas injection. It is found that W erosion can be suppressed or mitigated by Ne or D 2 seeding when divertor detachment is achieved. Compared to edge D 2 fueling, Ne seeding from the divertor target is favorable for full detachment condition and thus W erosion suppression. Increasing the upstream plasma density by edge D 2 fueling can affect the divertor condition, which may lead to a W erosion mitigation. D 2 puffing at divertor target is less effective on increasing the upstream plasma density than OMP D 2 puffing, and thus it is less effective on reduction of W erosion rates. W gross erosion profiles with different amount of injected D 2 at the divertor are reproduced by a mixed material W erosion model, which indicates that there exist a Li-C overlayer on the W surface of EAST divertor. Ne and D 2 injection are also found to have different impact on the normalized core W density. For the attached divertor condition, divertor Ne seeding will increase W leakage, but a suitable D 2 fueling from divertor target can strengthen the edge W screening. After the divertor detachment, although the W source is dramatically reduced, the W core density is kept in a high level for the Ne seeding discharges, and even increased for the D 2 fueling discharges.