Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Indicators journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind Spiders as biomonitors of metal pollution at Arctic mine sites: The case of the Black Angel Pb-Zn-mine, Maarmorilik, West Greenland Sophia V. Hansson a, ⁎ , Toke T. Høye b , Lis Bach a , Cecilie Mielec b , Anders Mosbech a , Jens Søndergaard a a Department of Bioscience, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark b Department of Bioscience, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, Grenåvej 14, DK-8410 Rønde, Denmark ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Arctic Arthropods Biomonitoring Heavy metal contamination Mining ABSTRACT Metal pollution from mining activities is a well-known environmental concern, and detailed environmental monitoring before, during, and after mining is essential to evaluate the contamination status of a mining area. We therefore investigated the use of Arctic wolf spiders as a potential monitoring organism for metal con- tamination. In the Arctic, spiders are the most abundant group of terrestrial predators, with documented abilities to accumulate metals. In Greenland however, most contamination studies in relation to mining have targeted the marine environment, with less attention given to the terrestrial. Following a distance transect (0–40 km) near the former Black Angel Pb-Zn-mine, Maarmorilik, West-Greenland, we collected samples of two species of wolf spiders (Pardosa glacialis and P. groenlandica), along with supporting samples from soil and lichens, and analyzed these for geochemical elements using Q-ICP-MS and DMA. We show that metal concentrations in spiders gen- erally reflect the contamination trend of the area, i.e. decreasing concentrations with increasing distance from the old mine, but also that large differences in bioaccumulation efficiency occurs between elements (Ag > Cd > Zn > Cu > Hg > Pb). We also found larger differences between juvenile and adult (female) spiders than between species. Adults generally contained higher concentrations than juveniles, suggesting that distinguishing between age classes of spiders is critical in future assessments of the environmental contamination status using spiders as bioindicator- and biomonitoring organisms. Although further studies are needed, we conclude that, especially in the case of Ag and Cd, Arctic wolf spiders are show a promising biomonitor of metal contamination near Arctic mine sites and elsewhere. 1. Introduction Mining for metals, such as lead (Pb) or zinc (Zn), is a well-known environmental concern due to the potential release, spread, and bio- logical uptake of associated contaminants such as heavy metals (Lottermoser, 2010). Repeated evaluations of the environmental impact of a mining area, through monitoring bioavailable loads of metals, are therefore essential to follow the pollution status and address mitigation actions if needed. In Greenland, environmental monitoring of the pol- lution status near mine sites has traditionally involved analyses of metals in soft-tissue of key monitoring organisms from the marine en- vironment (e.g. seaweed, blue mussels, and fish; Johansen et al., 2008; Søndergaard et al., 2013; Bach et al., 2014). Monitoring of the terres- trial environment at Greenland mine sites has usually been restricted to the use of soils or lichens, with limited inclusion of other biological monitoring organisms (Johansen et al., 2008, 2010; Søndergaard and Asmund, 2011; Bach et al., 2014; Bach and Larsen, 2016). Spiders are the most abundant group of terrestrial predators and have a key role in terrestrial food webs and ecosystems processes such as nutrient cycling (Turnbull, 1973; Marc et al., 1999). This is parti- cularly pronounced in the Arctic, where e.g. predatory beetles become less dominant (Schmidt et al., 2017; Turney et al., 2018; Koltz et al., 2018; Gillespie et al., 2019). Further, spiders are abundant even in areas (e.g. glacier forelands) where species diversity may otherwise be low (Hodkinson et al., 2001; Ingimarsdóttir et al., 2013). In addition, ground-dwelling hunting spiders have the ability to bioaccumulate environmental contaminants and can therefore reflect the pollution status of their surrounding habitats (Larsen et al., 1994; Wilczek and Migula, 1996; Marc et al., 1999; Jung et al., 2007). Due to specific adaptation mechanisms, wolf spiders have been shown to survive in highly contaminated environments, which enable them to recolonize an area after a contamination event has occurred (Wilczek and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105489 Received 30 January 2019; Received in revised form 29 May 2019; Accepted 13 June 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: sophia.hansson@bios.au.dk (S.V. Hansson). Ecological Indicators 106 (2019) 105489 1470-160X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T