Research
I am a postdoc in the Evolution Group led by Stephen de Lisle, where I work on questions related to, among other topics, local adaptation in damselflies.
Selected publications
Qvarforth A., Bensch H. M., Engström E., Eisele S., Rodushkin I., & Augustsson A. 2026. Technology-critical elements making their way to our plates: plant uptake with rising soil contamination. J Hazard Mater Adv. 22:101117.
Rotics S., Bensch H. M., Resheff Y., Clutton-Brock T. & Zöttl M. 2025. Workload division in wild Damaraland mole-rats. Phil Trans B. 380:20230276.
Resheff Y., Bensch H. M., Zöttl M., Harel R., Matsumoto-Oda A., Crofoot M.C., Gomez S., Börger L. & Rotics S. 2024. How to treat mixed behavior segments in supervised machine learning of behavioral modes from inertial measurement data. Mov Ecol. 12:44.
Bensch H. M., Thorley J., Finn K. & Zöttl M. 2024. Within-group sex ratios predict growth of social mole-rats. J Zool. 324: 63-70.
Bensch H. M., Lundin D., Tolf C., Waldenström J. & Zöttl M. 2023. Environmental effects rather than relatedness determine gut microbiome similarity in a social mammal. J Evol Biol. 36: 1753–1760.
Videvall E., Bensch H. M., Engelbrecht A., Cloete S. & Cornwallis C. K. 2023. Coprophagy rapidly matures juvenile gut microbiota in a precocial bird. Evol Lett. 7: 240–251.
Thorley J.*, Bensch H. M.*, Finn K., Clutton-Brock T. & Zöttl M. 2023. Damaraland mole-rats do not rely on helpers for reproduction or survival. Evol Lett. 7:203–215.
Bensch H. M., Tolf C., Waldenström J., Lundin D. & Zöttl M. 2023. Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes: captivity changes the gut microbiota composition and diversity in a social subterranean rodent. Anim Microbiome. 5:9.
Finn K.J., Thorley J., Bensch H. M. & Zöttl M. 2022. Subterranean Life-Style Does Not Limit Long Distance Dispersal in African Mole-Rats. Front. Ecol. Evol. 10:879014.
Zöttl M., Bensch H. M., Finn K.J., Hart D. W., Thorley J., Bennett N. C. & Braude S. 2022. Capture Order Across Social Bathyergids Indicates Similarities in Division of Labour and Spatial Organisation. Front. Ecol. Evol. 10:877221.
Resheff Y. S., Bensch H. M., Zöttl M. & Rotics S. 2022. Correcting a bias in the computation of behavioural time budgets that are based on supervised learning. Methods Ecol Evol. 13: 1488–1496.
Bensch H. M., Tolf C., Waldenström J., Lundin D. & Zöttl M. 2022. Freeze-drying can replace cold-chains for transport and storage of fecal microbiome samples. PeerJ. 10: e13095.
Bensch H. M., O’Connor E. M. & Cornwallis C. K. 2021. Living with relatives offsets the harm caused by pathogens in natural populations. Elife. 10:e66649.
Videvall E., Song S. J., Bensch H. M., Strandh M., Engelbrecht A., Serfontein N., Hellgren O., Olivier A., Cloete S., Knight R. & Cornwallis C. K. 2020. Early-life gut dysbiosis linked to mass mortality in ostriches. Microbiome. 8:147.
Videvall E., Song S. J., Bensch H. M., Strandh M., Engelbrecht A., Serfontein N., Hellgren O., Olivier A., Cloete S., Knight R. & Cornwallis C. K. 2019. The development of gut microbiota in ostriches and its association with juvenile growth. Mol Ecol. 28: 2653–2667.
Gómez-Llano M.A, Bensch H. M. & Svensson E.I. 2018. Sexual conflict and ecology: species composition and male density interact to reduce male mating harassment and increase female survival. Evolution. 72: 906–915.
Svensson E. I., Gómez-Llano M. A., Rivas A. & Bensch H. M. 2018. Frequency-dependence and ecological drift shape coexistence of species with similar niches. Am Nat. 191: 691–703.
*Shared first authorship