Abstract: The macroecology is the new developing foci of ecology, which entails ecology to be conducted from the aspect of quantification. The socialeconomic development has been phasing out new requirements on ecological research. Remote sensing, as a technique tool, is being increasingly applied to ecological research. It’s necessary to study the function of remote sensing and the issues of ecology, and to seek the pointcut between them. Those are the developments of remote sensing application, and a useful way to solve the ecological problem. For ecologists without remote sensing background, or vice versa, lack of mutual understanding still remains a hurdle to integration of remote sensing and ecology. In this review, we described how remote sensing can be applied to ecological research. The related history was summarized and the future trend was also predicted. This review was mainly targeted at research on scales above ecosystem level. Specifically, we went over remote sensing application on ecosystem environments, ecosystem biological composition, ecosystem structure, ecosystem material flow and cycling, and ecosystem functions. On the basis of developing remote sensing technology, we pointed out how remote sensing can be combined effectively with ecological research. In the meantime, we summarized the advantages and disadvantages of each remote sensing dataset, which can be used as a guidance for applying remote sensing in ecological research.