This book contains the proceedings of a symposium held at the College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, 16-20 June 1986. The seed for this symposium arose from a group of physiologists, soU scientists and biochemists that met in Leningrad, USSR in July 1975 at the 12th Botanical Conference in a Session organized by Professor B.B. Vartepetian. This group and others later conspired to contribute to a book entitled Plant Life in Anaerobic Environments (eds. D. D. Hook and R. M. M. Crawford, Ann Arbor Science, 1978). Several contributors to the book suggested in 1983 that a broad-scoped symposium on wetlands would be useful (a) in facilitating communication among the diverse research groups involved in wetlands research (b) in bringing researchers and managers together and (c) in presenting a com- prehensive and balanced coverage on the status of ecology ami management of wetlands from a global perspective. With this encouragement, the senior editor organized a Plan- ning Committee that encompassed expertise from many disciplines of wetland scientists and managers. This Committee, with input from their colleagues around the world, organized a symposium that addressed almost every aspect of wetland ecology and management.