"Soil is a largely non-renewable resource with high socio-economic and natural value. Soil ecosystems sustain high biodiversity involved in complex food webs that interact with abiotic factors. Understanding these complex interactions could provide a model for monitoring soil disturbances as well as optimizing ecological scenarios to favour biological control. The aim of this post-doctoral research project is to develop and use molecular tools based on quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) to study food webs comprised of nematodes, fungi and bacteria. The new molecular tools will improve our ability to detect and quantify these organisms in soil. We intend to study the relative roles of physical and biotic components of various habits in regulating the spatial patterns of the entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN). These nematodes offer a promising non-chemical alternative for managing insect pests in a number of crops worldwide. Whereas these nematodes are generally applied to soil repeatedly as needed (augmentation biological control), we seek new information to modify the habitat (conservation biological control) in ways that will increase the efficacy of both augmented and endemic EPNs. Furthermore, these molecular tools will provide a means of monitoring human activities that cause a significant perturbation to the soil ecosystem, by monitoring changes in the occurrence and population density of organisms related to the state of soil conservation"