Can Spiders Help Keep Our Food Safe From Toxins? This TCU Researcher Thinks So.

When Matt Chamchal sees a spider in his house, he safely releases it. That's part of why kids do it. Because he thinks spiders help protect our food.

Toxins from lakes and streams can get into the fish we eat. Some toxins, such as mercury, do not make the water unsafe, but they can build up in fish and reach levels that are harmful to fish and the people who eat them.

Chamchal, a biology professor at Texas Christian University, said local officials monitor fish for contaminants and issue fishing advisories when levels could be unsafe.

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But each data point indicates that when a fish calls, it may not be as frequent or as massive as we'd like to try. He and his team believe spiders have several advantages as test subjects and could make mercury control easier and cheaper.

"You don't have to go in the water," Chumchal said. He says it only takes about 10 minutes to assemble and analyze the spider to identify potential problems.

A spider sample may not be enough to issue a fishing warning, but it can serve as an early warning of mercury in water and help target testing efforts.

Subject: Mercury issues in Texas

"Fish in the Forest"

Most people don't eat spiders very much. So why turn to these eight-legged creatures for food contamination warnings?

For scientists like Chamchal and David Walters of the US Geological Survey, spiders are no different from fish when it comes to toxins.

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Interested in protecting aquatic ecosystems, Walter began studying pollutants in fish and noticed that his team was not alone in their journey of collecting data. We were constantly covered… with spiders because they were in the bushes near the water,” she said.

Walters decided to take a closer look at spiders. "They had as much pollution as fish...they're just fish in the jungle," he said.

Walters and Chamchal co-authored a paper describing how spiders were used to measure various pollutants in water. Walters was not involved in Chamchal's experimental work.

Many spiders settle near the waterline. Walters is particularly interested in long-jawed spiders found near lakes and streams.

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"These spiders are literally everywhere," Walters said. "They're found on every continent except Antarctica. If there's fresh water...one of these spiders lives nearby.

Chumchal says collecting spiders is easier and cheaper than collecting fish for a specimen. "We can take most of it with our hands," he said. "We go out when the sun goes down...and pick them right off the plants."

Maddie Hannapel, who did her master's research at TCU's Chamchal lab and is still a doctoral student at the University of North Texas studying spiders, says this is unnatural for many would-be spider collectors. But it will pass.

"After all, it's no surprise to take a spider and put it in a jar," she said.

Because collecting spider specimens is low-tech, it will be easier to explore many streams and lakes, Çamçal said. Due to the high cost of fish inspections, authorities are focusing on popular recreational fishing areas. "Cheaper gear means you're less likely to miss an important point," he said.

It's a world of insect-eating spiders.

Chumchal, an ecologist, came to spiders through his interest in food webs, the webs that connect predators (including humans) and prey in ecosystems.

In a lake or stream, insects are at the bottom of the food chain. Spiders gain energy by eating these beneficial insects. A spider eats and collects energy from many insects. A bird or bat can eat this spider and eat lots of insects in one convenient package.

The same food chain principles apply to insectivorous fish. But in addition to collecting energy, Chumchal said, fish and spiders accumulate pollutants with every meal.

Water from a lake or stream may be safe for swimming or even drinking when it contains a small amount of toxic contamination. But when the beetles hatch in the water, they concentrate on these pollutants and pass them through the food chain.

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When we eat fish, it can contain dozens or hundreds of beetle-sized toxins, making us more dangerous than the water the fish live in.

A pollutant of concern is mercury.

ALBANIA: TCU researchers use spiders to test mercury levels in water

TCU researchers say testing spiders for mercury could help us know when to eat fish. (Elias Valvede II / Personal photographer)

Mercury has always been on Earth, but Chumchal has sent a lot more mercury into the air over the past 150 years by burning fossil fuels. “The main source of mercury is mercury-contaminated coal,” he said.

And the consequences of burning coal are not limited geographically. "The [mercury] pollution released in the First World doesn't necessarily stay there," Chumchal said. Mercury can travel far and enter fresh water when it rains or snows, or it binds to particles in the atmosphere and settles in the ground.

By interacting with bacteria in the water, the mercury is chemically transformed into another form of methylmercury. "This stuff is really toxic," Chamcal said.

According to the World Health Organization, exposure to small amounts of methylmercury can damage the brain, lungs and intestines. This is especially dangerous for the fetus, a pregnant woman can become infected by eating contaminated fish and shellfish.

Warning

If we want to reduce these long-term risks, we need to drastically reduce mercury emissions, Chumchal says. "It will affect generations of humanity... if we don't do something now," he said.

We need some real fishing advice on short notice. But in areas with many lakes and streams, it can be difficult to test fish in those areas. Chumchal thinks spiders are a more realistic way to track Mercury, at least as an early warning system.

If mercury levels are high in the sediments around a lake or stream, officials said they may conduct more extensive testing on local fish species.

Testing spider samples can be easy, but such testing requires many people to harvest spiders from water. As citizen scientists, Hannapel and Walters want local communities to contribute to this effort.

"It can be a very powerful monitoring tool to help people understand pollution in their environment," Hannapel said.

Walters anticipates roadblocks: "Very few citizens want to touch the spiders," he said.

However, Hannapel hopes that knowing more about spiders will eliminate some of the concerns. "[Spiders] are important parts of the ecosystem that we often destroy," she said.

Like Chamchal, Hanapel and Walters do not crush spiders in their homes. Walter says he likes to identify types of intruders and then release them safely. "I've killed enough spiders," he said.

Lila Levinson reports in Science for the Dallas Morning News at the Advancement of Science Fellowship in America.

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