Fern gametophyte, with simple structure, is haploid and independent of sporophyte. It possesses unique advantages in investigating its response to environmental signals and revealing the mechanism as compared to sporophyte. The recent literatures are included in this paper reviews both at home and abroad, as well as the development and frontier science on physiological and ecological dynamics of fern gametophyte. The advanced research contents are the main branches of the development part, native researchers paid more attention on the traditional botany of the fern gametophyte morphology and development, while the overseas showed more interests in the new technology and new science applying in classical botany, we took X-ray optical transmission and Flow Cytometry (FCM) as examples. The domestic and foreign research progress on fern gametophytes development is mainly summarized in the second part. Photosynthesis and respiration, responses to the soil adversity, climate changes, as well as allelochemicals are included in the physioecology part, respectively. In the photosynthesis and respiration part, the fern gametophyte would produce self-protection mechanisms under the change of the light source, and the critical index of gametophyte development is carbohydrates and lipids. Then in stress research of the soil part, the as hyperaccumulator-Pteris vittata and the salt tolerance plant-Asplenium marinum, their gametophytes were the best choices for the reaction between soil and fern in the environmental material recently. Meanwhile, the widely spread fern of Polystichum in Holland, 20 kinds of fern of tropical rainforest in Costa Rica and the water fern, Salvinia natans, their survival rate of fern gametophyte inducts the vital relationship with the changeable temperature in the experiments. And in the allelopathy research, the water extract of root, stem and leaf of Ageratina adenophora presented the harm roles on the development and the growth of the 4 kinds of gametophyte, such as Neocheiropteris palmatopedata, and the results gave the conclusion that the invasive plants were harm to both native fern and native environment, as well as the same evidence happened to the invasive Lygodium microphyllum in Florida. In the end, we also summarized the new tendency and different methods applied in this research field, as gene and plant stem cell in fern research are outstanding and meaningful. And plant nutrition methods and phytohormone applied in the fern of physio-ecology also can be utilized in the gametophyte. The existing research problems and future research trend are discussed in the end that maybe helpful to the scholars of our country for the further research in this field.