Initial Analysis of Metal Accumulation in Wolf Spiders Using Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

Elaine Langone Center, Terrace Room

High concentrations of metal contaminants can have detrimental effects on biological systems. Detection of these contaminants within animals can provide information about the pattern, source, and pathways of metals as they move through and between food chains. Wolf spiders may represent a model indicator species for heavy metals since they intersect detrital, terrestrial, and aquatic food chains. They also frequently cannibalize and engage in intraguild predation. These feeding behaviors and the trophic position of spiders as apex arthropod predators, make them more likely to concentrate metals. Spiders and soil samples have been collected from several coal-impacted sites such as waste piles from surface mining, mine fire sites, coal ash burial sites, and a residential area to serve as a non-contaminated reference location. Cadmium, copper, lead, and iron will be measured. Differences in heavy metal concentrations will be measured by spider species and location and then compared to metal concentrations in the soil for each site. The spiders and soil samples are dried, digested in acid, extracted and then are analyzed by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy for a variety of metals. Soil results so far indicate (in µg/g) copper 55-116, cadmium ND – 0.01, lead 0.2-0.5, and in spiders (in µg/spider) copper 5-184, cadmium ND (none detected) – 0.005, lead ND – 0.001. Additional samples are being prepared and analyzed for these and additional metals. With these results, there can then be more insight with heavy metal accumulation in the environment.