Sentinel Riparian Spiders Predict Mercury Contamination of Riverine Fish.

Mercury (Hg) is a widespread and toxic environmental contaminant. It is challenging to determine the level of Hg contamination of food chains and fish within the millions of water bodies in the United States. Mercury contamination can vary 10-fold between ecosystems, even those in the same region.

Use of Riparian Spiders as Sentinels of Persistent and Bioavailable Chemical Contaminants in Aquatic Ecosystems: A Review.

Aquatic ecosystems around the world are contaminated with a wide range of anthropogenic chemicals, including metals and organic pollutants, that originate from point and nonpoint sources. Many of these chemical contaminants have complex environmental cycles, are persistent and bioavailable, can be incorporated into aquatic food webs, and pose a threat to the health of wildlife and humans. Identifying appropriate sentinels that reflect bioavailability is critical to assessing and managing aquatic ecosystems impacted by contaminants.

Mud Dauber Nests as Sources of Spiders in Mercury Monitoring Studies.

Identifying ecosystems where biota may be contaminated with hazardous levels of methylmercury (MeHg) is a challenge. One widely used approach for determining site-specific MeHg contamination is to monitor MeHg contamination in sentinel species. Terrestrial shoreline spiders that consume emergent aquatic insects (e.

Effect of Body Size on Methylmercury Concentrations in Shoreline Spiders: Implications for Their Use as Sentinels.

Shoreline spiders have been proposed as sentinels to monitor aquatic contaminants including methylmercury (MeHg). The present study examined the effect of spider body size on MeHg concentrations in shoreline spiders. We collected 6 taxa of spiders belonging to 4 families (orb-weavers [Araneidae], long-jawed orb weavers [Tetragnathidae: Tetragnatha sp.