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Riparian spiders indicate the magnitude and sources of polychlorinated biphenyl contamination at a large contaminated sediment site
Author(s) -
Walters David M.,
Otter Ryan R.,
Kraus Johanna M.,
Mills Marc A.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1002/etc.4216
Subject(s) - contamination , polychlorinated biphenyl , environmental science , dredging , riparian zone , sediment , spider , environmental chemistry , ecology , biology , habitat , chemistry , paleontology
We investigated polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination at the Ashtabula River (northeast OH, USA) area of concern following remedial dredging using araneid and tetragnathid spiders. The PCB concentrations remain elevated in the area of concern compared with reference conditions. Patterns of contamination were strikingly similar between taxa, but were higher in tetragnathids at the most contaminated sites. Spider PCB homolog distributions identified 2 PCB sources to the area of concern. Based on these findings, we recommend situations where these taxa can be used alone, in concert, or combined into a composite “spider” sample to assess environmental contamination. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:2467–2474. Published 2018 Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This article is a US government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.