Spidey Sens-r: Spider Webs as Air Quality Indicators to Address Environmental Injustice

Abstract

Introduction:

Heavy metal pollution can degrade air quality and the health of living organisms. However, the placement of federal reference air quality monitors creates gaps in monitoring that leave marginalized communities vulnerable to pollution. Public science air quality monitoring exists to increase data accessibility for all; however, even public science air sensors are mostly distributed within white and wealthy communities. Our study aims to fill these gaps in air pollution detection using spider webs as biomonitors.

Methods:

We collected Agelenidae spider webs from three Maryland counties and tested if we could detect fine-scale differences in metal content and identify sources of contamination using spatial correlations.

Results:

Our results confirm that webs can detect significant differences in metal content between adjacent neighborhoods. Further, we found a positive correlation between the distance to the contamination source and the amount of iron and aluminum found in webs.

Discussion:

Spider web biomonitoring can aid environmental justice by identifying air pollution at a fine scale across regions and at lower costs.