This course includes (but not limited to) the following topics: definition, composition, and function of wetlands and freshwater environments; basics of hydrology, wetland hydrology, interaction between organisms and hydrology; wetland soils, chemical reactions, and elemental circulation; structural and physical adaptation to wetlands in animals and plants; succession of wetland plant community; ecology of vertebrate and invertebrates in wetlands; generation and succession of wetland ecosystem, circulation of materials and energy; introduction to coastal and inland wetlands; introduction to wetland policies and regulations in the US; introduction to wetlands in Taiwan; wetland management objectives and techniques, wetland loss, reestablishment, creation, and transformation; possible impacts of global change on wetlands.