湿地是当前国际众多学科学者共同关注的前沿热门研究领域 ,但作为湿地研究 ,还没有形成完整的科学体系 ,尚处于正在发育 ,尚未定型的胚胎阶段。本文对湿地研究的若干基本问题进行了初步探讨。认为 :湿地是地球表层上由水、土和适生植被相互作用构成 ,其内部过程长期为水所控制的自然综合体。湿地的主要科学问题是湿地中水陆相互作用产生的滤过作用 ,指物质在湿地多界面上的迁移、转化与分配过程、机理与效应的总和 ,是湿地生态过程与功能的核心和实质内容 ,包括水文过程与效应、物质源汇过程与效应、生物生产过程与效应等。并在此基础上提出了湿地研究的基本框架和近期中国湿地研究的优先研究领域。

Wetland is a hotpoint which is paid a close attention to by many the scientists in different subjects, but wetland researches are very young and under developing. This paper discussed some basic issues of wetland researches and show that: wetland could be described as a physical synthesis which composed of water, soil and vegetation and the process is dominated by that of water in the surface layer of the earth. The main scientific issue is the filtrationism which could defined as the movement, transference, redistribution and effects of water, nutrients and contaminants in multi interface through terrestrial and aquatic interaction in wetland, which is the core of ecological process and function in wetland. It includes water process and effects, cycling process and effects of nutrients and contaminants, wetland productivity and biodiversity and so on. The frame of wetland sciences system and the priority in wetland researches in China were also proposed.