The saline meadows and intertidal mudflats provide an important stopping-over point for birds migrating on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway.

The natural wetlands - reed fields and tidal flats - have diminished greatly in recent years through conversion to aquaculture and development.

[4] The Dongying-Huang He Nature Reserve is the area sits on the second largest oil-field in China.

The interior grasslands are characterized by Kunai grass (Imperata cylindrica), the saline meadows by salt-tolerate plants such as Suaeda.

Freshwater stands inland have mostly been converted to rice paddies and aquaculture ponds.