With the arrival of the era of big data and the rapid development of big data technology, the construction and application of ecological environment big data have been initiated. To comprehensively promote the construction and application of ecological environment big data, we summarize in the present paper the opportunities and advantages presented by ecological environment big data in terms of solving ecological environment problems, and analyze the challenges faced regarding the application of ecological environment big data. We review the concept and basic features of big data and present the particularity and complexity of the characteristics of ecological environment big data,taking into consideration the characteristics of the ecological environment. Subsequently, we primarily analyze the opportunities presented by ecological environment big data in mitigating environmental pollution, ecological degradation, and climate change from the aspects of data storage, data processing, data analysis, data interpretation, and presentation, and compare these with the use of traditional ecological environment data. The advantages of ecological environment big data indicate that this type of data can help us to improve the comprehensive decision-making level of ecological environment management. Although prospects for the applications of ecological environment big data in China are promising, there exist potential difficulties and challenges, such as data sharing, dataassessing, data application innovation, data management, technological innovation and launch, professional personnel training, and capital investment. Finally, we propose the following three priority areas concerning ecological environment big data based on our thorough review: (1) standardization of all types of ecological environment data; (2) building the storage, processing, and analysis platforms of ecological environment big data storage and processing analysis; (3) pushing forward the docking of ecological environment big data at home and abroad.