<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>Dalon P. White</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>David Walters</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Ryan R. Otter</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Ken M. Fritz</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Brian Crone</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Marc A. Mills</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Gale B. Beaubien</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2023</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Polychlorinated dibenzo-&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;-dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) are persistent, toxic, and bioaccumulative. Currently, PCDD/F monitoring programs primarily use fish and birds with potentially large home ranges to monitor temporal trends over broad spatial scales; sentinel organisms that provide targeted sediment contaminant information across small geographic areas have yet to be developed. Riparian orb-weaving spiders, which typically have small home ranges and consume primarily adult aquatic insects, are potential PCDD/F sentinels. Recent studies have demonstrated that spider tissue concentrations indicate the source and magnitude of dioxin-like chlorinated compounds in contaminated sediments, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Our aim in the present study was to assess the utility of riparian spiders as sentinels for PCDD/F-contaminated sediments. We measured PCDD/F (total [Σ] and homologs) in surface sediments and spiders collected from three sites within the St. Louis River basin (Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA). We then compared (1) patterns in ΣPCDD/F concentrations between sediment and spiders, (2) the distribution of homologs within sediments and spiders when pooled across sites, and (3) the relationship between sediment and spider concentrations of PCDD/F homologs across 13 stations sampled across the three sites. The ΣPCDD/F concentrations in sediment (mean ± standard error 286 591 ± 97 614 pg/g) were significantly higher than those in riparian spiders (2463 ± 977 pg/g,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt; &amp;lt; 0.001), but the relative abundance of homologs in sediment and spiders were not significantly different. Spider homolog concentrations were significantly and positively correlated with sediment concentrations across a gradient of sediment PCDD/F contamination (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;R&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;span&gt; = 0.47,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt; &amp;lt; 0.001). Our results indicate that, as has been shown for other legacy organic chemicals like PCBs, riparian spiders are suitable sentinels of PCDD/F in contaminated sediment.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.1002/etc.5531</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Wiley</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Riparian spiders: Sentinels of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and dibenzofuran-contaminated sediment</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>