As an industrial partner, HYDREKA will codirect one of the PhD student, with Pr Chatnizotas from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany. Specifically, the student will unravel the pesticide interactions on the different trophic levels, including bacteria, predatory microbes (e.g., protists) and viruses. In this frame, lab microcosm studies (small images of the soil ecosystem) of different complexities will be established. The responses of interacting trophic levels upon pesticide exposure and the cascading effects on the dynamics, diversity and adaptation of both predator and prey levels and on related soil ecosystem functions will be followed.
HYDREKA Business Unit Environmental Expertise will bring its expertise in setting up microcosms and in assessing microbial communities following specific genes (degradation genes) through the communities and through the latest sequencing technologies (second and third generation) revealing the full soil gene contents. The evaluation of soil health and soil health restauration are tools that we wish to develop in this network.