Oyster aquaculture has experienced tremendous growth in the United States over the past decade, but little is known about consumer preferences for oysters. This study analyzed preferences for oysters with varied combinations of brands, production locations, and production methods (aquaculture vs. wild-caught) using dichotomous choice, revealed preference economic field experiments. Results suggest significant and distinct differences in behavior between first-time and regular oyster consumers. While infrequent oyster consumers were drawn to oysters labeled as wild-caught, experienced oyster consumers preferred oysters raised via aquaculture. These findings will be valuable for growers and policymakers who invest in aquaculture to improve surrounding ecosystems.

Coastal wetlands sequester large amounts of carbon in their soils, effectively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and acting as a carbon sink. In this paper, we estimate the economic value of carbon sequestered by wetlands in the Delaware Estuary. We estimate the value of the current stock of wetlands, the value of the historic loss of wetlands, and under a range of different scenarios the expected future loss. We use historical topographic maps and Land Cover inventories of the Delaware Estuary to measure the acreage of tidal wetlands in nine distinct time periods from 1778 to 2011. Using these data, we estimate an annual rate of wetland loss of 1.03km 2 . Coupling observed land cover change with exogenous factors including sea-level rise, population pressure, and channel dredging, we estimate changes in tidal wetland area under a range of future scenarios for our expected future economic loss estimates. Keywords carbon sequestration; blue carbon; tidal wetlands; ecosystem services; social cost of carbon 2

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The large wind resource and population centers along the Mid-Atlantic Coast of the United States make it an attractive region to develop offshore wind power. Understanding and accurately predicting the meteorology offshore is fundamental to efficient integration of these future wind farms into an electrical grid. Particular interest is focused on anticipating and reducing errors associated with wind ramps, which are characterized by rapid, sustained changes in wind speed over a period of hours. Using meteorological observations from a coastal buoy, we characterize 428 wind ramp-ups between 2005 and 2012 in terms of frequency, duration and magnitude, time and date of occurrence, and large-scale synoptics. From this group, we select 24 case studies that represent typical and extreme ramp-ups at this location and then model the impact that the forecasting error of these ramp-ups could have on the electrical grid. The case studies are modeled with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and compared with nearby buoy observations to assess forecast errors in ramp-up timing, shape, and magnitude. WRF frequently simulated ramp-ups too early, relative to observations, and often predicted the pre-ramp-up wind speed to be too high or the post-ramp-up wind speed to be too low. In the case of August 14, 2007, all three forecast errors occurred. The simulated impact on the grid is calculated by comparing the errors in forecast power with concurrent electrical load data in PJM's Mid-Atlantic Area Council-East (PJM-E) region. The largest impacts on the electrical grid were found to occur in the winter or at night in the summer. This framework allows for the identification of events that would potentially cause problems for the electrical grid in the PJM-E region.

Along the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts, port authorities and governments have been competing for access to federal funds to deepen the channels and berths in each of the major estuary-based harbors, thereby facilitating access by larger containerships. Consistent with a source-to-sea conceptualization, physical modifications of an estuary can result in dynamic changes to its water and sediment flows, resulting in new arrangements of environmental features. These modifications, in turn, can lead to redistributions of the net benefits arising from extant flows of valued ecosystem services to stakeholders and communities in the broader river-estuary system. Here, some of the implications of channel deepening in the Hudson river-estuary system were examined as a case study. An integrated analytical framework was developed, comprising hydrodynamic models of water flows and environmental characteristics, especially salinity; extreme value estimates of the occurrence of regional droughts; and assessments of the welfare effects of changes in ecosystem services. Connections were found among channel deepening in the lower estuary, increased risks to fluvial drinking water withdrawals in the upper estuary, and expected economic losses to hydropower generation in the upper river. The results argue for a more inclusive consideration of the consequences of human modifications of river-estuary systems.

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