Jaime Resano receives an Extraordinary Doctoral Award corresponding to the course 2013-2014 for his thesis with the Conservation Biology Group

Entitled "Feeding ecology of Bonelli’s eagle Aquila fasciata: effects of diet on body condition, vital rates and demography", this thesis examines in detail the trophic ecology of Bonelli’s eagle in several populations of Western Europe. For this, the Bonelli's eagle diet is estimated through an isotope analyses in nestling feathers, offering the first isotopic data for the Bonelli’s eagle. Results show that higher consumption of preferred prey species (Rabbit and Red-legged partridges) improved some nestling body condition biomarkers and territorial productivity. On the other hand, those territorial breeding pairs with higher diet diversity had lower productivity. Thus, the monitoring of the diet of a terrestrial predator such as Bonelli’s eagle could serve in bioindication studies to detect how human pressure affects the conservation state of those habitats and communities in the Mediterranean ecosystems where the species inhabits. This thesis consists on 5 research studies in the form of scientific articles, 4 of them already published in international journals recognized in the Science Citation Index (SCI) that are listed below, and one to be published soon. Congratulations to Jaime!

• Resano, J.; Hernández-Matías, A.; Real, J.; Parés, F. 2011. Using stable isotopes to determine dietary patterns in Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila fasciata) nestlings. Journal of Raptor Research, 45 (4): 342-352. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3356/JRR-11-13.1. pdf
• Resano-Mayor, J., Hernández-Matías, A., Real, J., Parés, F., Inger, R. & Bearhop, S. 2013. Comparing pellet and stable isotope analyses of nestling Bonelli's Eagle Aquila fasciata diet. Ibis. doi: 10.1111/ibi.12095 pdf
• Resano-Mayor, J., Hernández-Matías, A., Real, J., Moleón, M., Parés, F., Inger, R., & Bearhop, S. 2014. Multi-scale effects of nestling diet on breeding performance in a terrestrial top predator inferred from stable isotope analysis. PLoSONE 9: e95320. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095320. pdf
• Resano-Mayor, J., Real, J., Moleón, M., Sánchez-Zapata, J. A., Palma, L. & Hernández-Matías, A. 2015. Diet-demography relationships in a long-lived predator: from territories to populations. Oikos. doi: 10.1111/oik.02468 pdf