Abstract: Ruppia maritime is an important elementary producer in the inshore ecosystem. Understanding its ecological characteristics is significant to restoring the degenerated and polluted coastal wetland ecosystems. We integrated a research on R. maritime to review and discuss its ecological characteristics from the following aspects: niche and adaptation with extreme environmental factors;propagation strategy in resource allocation; nutrition metabolism and impact on the biogeochemistry process; the reason of R. maritima declines in population; and application to environmental restoration. The organism’s response to the environment changes greatly, and research into R. maritime has potential application in environmental engineering of water restoration.