Wetlands: An essential component of curricula in limnology

Wetlands have long received little attention in traditional limnology courses. Yet they are a critical resource, providing habitat for important species, significant links in the cycling of nutrients and the global storage of carbon, buffering against pollutants, and other services. Limnology courses should, therefore, be broadened to cover wetlands more thoroughly. Students should be taught how wetlands are defined, categorized, and distributed locally and globally; their patterns of development; their ecological and biogeochemical functions; their values to human society; the causes of wetland degradation and destruction; concepts and techniques in wetland restoration and creation; and issues in wetland management. They should also learn about key research areas in wetland science, dealing in particular with concerns about their future in the face of increasing human disturbance.