Riparian spiders indicate the magnitude and sources of polychlorinated biphenyl contamination at a large contaminated sediment site

Abstract

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.