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12 RESTORATION OF AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS • Evaluation of the stability and persistence of wetland ecosys- tems. • Evaluation of the impact of sediment deposition or erosion, nu- trient loading or removal, toxic runoff, pedestrian and off-road ve- hicle use, grazing, and other impacts on wetland structure and func- tion. • The ability of microbes, which are important to global carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen cycles, to perform these roles in restored wet- lands. The committee recommends that inland and coastal wetlands be restored at a rate that offsets any further loss of wetlands and con- tributes to an overall gain of 10 million wetland acres by the year 2010, largely through reconverting crop and pastureland and modi- fying or removing existing water-control structures. This represents a tenfold increase in the wetlands restoration target included in the Agricultural Wetland Reserve Program of the Food, Agricultuae, Con- servation, and Trade Act of 1990. This number also represents less than 10 percent of the total number of acres of wetlands lost in the last 200 years. The committee further recommends that, in the long term, this acreage be expanded to restore more of the approximately 117 million acres of the wetlands that have been lost in the United States over the past 200 years. EDUCATION AND TRAINING To accomplish the preceding tasks, the nation will require resource management professionals with multidisciplinary training. Restora- tion of aquatic ecosystems requixes an integrated, broad-based ap- proach; those trained to help restore these systems must have an interdisciplinary education. Although specialization will still be nec- essary, professionals will need the ability to coordinate work that draws on aquatic biology and fisheries, chemistry, hydrology, ecol- ogy, fluvial geomorphology, hydraulic engineering, social sciences, and wildlife management. Some well-intentioned restoration projects have failed because flu- vial and biological processes were not adequately taken into account in their design and implementation. The public has become increas- ingly aware of the need for restoration of river-riparian ecosystems (as several case studies in Appendix A indicate), and numerous pub- lic and private agencies and citizen groups are likely to initiate fur- ther stream and rivex restoration projects. These organizations, if properly guided and supported, can be a valuable impetus for effec-