Professor Bendix specializes in geomorphology, biogeography and pyrogeography, which refers to the projected geographic distribution of wildfires. In recent years Professor Bendix has been interviewed extensively about wildfire outbreaks in the U.S., especially in California. He is also interested in the human impacts on environmental systems and media coverage of the environment.

Bendix has a variety of research interests, including how ecological disturbances, mainly fire and floods, affect plant communities and interactions between ecological and fluvial geomorphic processes. Professor Bendix’s research on river ecosystems was featured in a chapter in S. Sabater, A. Elosegi and R. Ludwig, eds., Multiple Stressors in River Ecosystems: Status, Impacts and Prospects for the Future.