Methane seeps are highly productive ecosystems that provide carbon sequestration services, host diverse communities including endemic species, and serve as habitats for commercial fisheries. Little is known about the economic value the public places on them. Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs) are administered to a sample of Costa Rican taxpayers to evaluate their willingness to pay (WTP) in monetary terms using tradeoffs made in a survey context involving three of the main attributes of methane seep ecosystems to provide insights for future conservation and management efforts. Extensive effort is devoted to understanding how Costa Ricans view different aspects of the deep sea. We find that they associate it with strange animals, natural resources, the unknown, and being far from reach. Perhaps surprisingly, they underestimate how much they know about the deep sea. We find that WTP for methane seep protection is the highest for programs that protect seeps with endemic species, followed by seeps with high climate change mitigation potential and commercial fishing habitat. Higher-income groups and women are more likely to prefer options that increase the current level of protection. We discuss how science communication and community engagement contribute to care expressed toward the deep sea.

中文翻译：

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了解并重视人类与哥斯达黎加深海甲烷渗漏的联系


甲烷渗漏是高产的生态系统，提供碳固存服务，容纳包括特有物种在内的多样化群落，并作为商业渔业的栖息地。公众对它们的经济价值知之甚少。对哥斯达黎加纳税人样本进行离散选择实验（DCE），利用在涉及甲烷渗漏生态系统三个主要属性的调查背景下进行的权衡，评估他们以货币形式支付的意愿（WTP），为未来的保护提供见解和管理努力。人们致力于了解哥斯达黎加人如何看待深海的不同方面。我们发现他们将其与奇怪的动物、自然资源、未知和遥不可及的事物联系在一起。也许令人惊讶的是，他们低估了自己对深海的了解。我们发现，保护具有特有物种的渗漏项目的甲烷渗漏保护的支付意愿最高，其次是具有高气候变化缓解潜力和商业捕鱼栖息地的渗漏。高收入群体和女性更有可能更喜欢能够提高当前保护水平的选择。我们讨论科学传播和社区参与如何有助于表达对深海的关怀。