01 / Consistent sampling
Make samples comparable.
Develop a protocol for site selection, web characteristics, collection timing, handling, and storage. Record relevant environmental conditions and test how these choices affect the findings.
Proposed research initiative
TRI-SPAN
Spiderweb Plastics Atmospheric Network
Could spiderweb sampling help us study airborne plastics—and investigate microbes on the same web?
A proposal, not an operating network. No validated TRI-SPAN method, funding, or laboratory partnership has been confirmed. This page describes a research question and a proposed approach, not study results.
The research question
A useful signal?
First, calibrate it.
Published research has examined microplastics, including tire wear particles, in spiderwebs collected in an urban setting. That work motivates further questions about how web samples should be collected and interpreted.
TRI-SPAN proposes to investigate whether a standardized approach could add useful information when tested alongside conventional airborne sampling. Finding material on a web alone would not establish an airborne concentration, a person’s exposure, or a health effect.
Read the primary reference ↓A proposed two-piece approach
One web.
Two lines of inquiry.
Two small pieces from the same spiderweb: one for microbes, one for plastics. Each pair would be recorded as coming from the same web and collection event. This is a design concept to evaluate, not a validated protocol.
Microbial analysis
One small piece reserved for investigating microbes associated with the sampled web.
Plastics analysis
A second small piece reserved for investigating plastics collected on the sampled web.
What needs to be tested: whether the pieces are comparable, which handling and preservation methods suit each analysis, and whether collecting one piece affects the other. Paired findings alone would not establish that microbes and plastics interact, that plastics caused a microbial change, or that either caused a health effect.
Proposed design priorities
Build reliability into every step.
02 / Contamination controls
Account for what we introduce.
Plan field and laboratory blanks, handling controls, and documented procedures to help distinguish collected material from contamination during sampling and analysis.
03 / Calibration
Compare with established sampling.
Pair web collection with conventional airborne sampling. Investigate how results relate across sites and time periods before proposing any conversion or comparison of measurements.
04 / Limits of interpretation
Define what a result can mean.
Evaluate repeatability, collection biases, and analytical limitations. Keep environmental observations separate from claims about human exposure, microbial effects, or health outcomes.
Evidence & next steps
Open questions.
Inspectable sources.
Protocol details—including the two-piece sampling approach, analytical methods, handling and preservation, sampling locations, and feasibility—remain to be developed. Researchers and prospective funders are invited to discuss design and development.
- Goßmann et al. (2022). Plastic in the air?! — Spider webs as spatial and temporal mirror for microplastics including tire wear particles in urban air. Science of the Total Environment. Primary research; background for the proposal, not a validation of TRI-SPAN.