biology

The Pollinator Pathway

The Pollinator Pathway is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Pollinator Pathway rather than just read about it. In short: The Pollinator Pathway is a participatory art, design and ecology social sculpture initiative founded by the artist and designer Sarah Bergmann. Its objective is to connect existing isolated green spaces and create a more hospitable urban environment for pollinators like bees with a system of ecological corridors of flowering plants by using existing urban infrastructure such as curb space and rooftops.

Key takeaways

The Pollinator Pathway belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Pollinator Pathway to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Pollinator Pathway from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Pollinator Pathway is a participatory art, design and ecology social sculpture initiative founded by the artist and designer Sarah Bergmann. Its objective is to connect existing isolated green spaces and create a more hospitable urban environment for pollinators like bees with a system of ecological corridors of flowering plants by using existing urban infrastructure such as curb space and rooftops.

Pathways

The first pollinator pathway (47°36′33.60″N 122°18′26.40″W) is located on Seattle, Washington's east-west Columbia Street, and connects Seattle University's campus on 12th Avenue to Nora's Woods on 29th Avenue one mile (1.6 km) away, crossing one third of Seattle's width. A second 1.5-mile (2.4 km) long official pollinator pathway is slated for Seattle's north-south 11th Avenue, connecting Seattle University's campus to Volunteer Park. The first segment of the pathway on Columbia Street, which Bergmann received grants from the City of Seattle, Northwest Horticultural Society, and Awesome Foundation to create, replaced a 108-foot (33 m) long, 12-foot (3.7 m) grass strip between the street and sidewalk with plants that could attract pollinators. The pathways are composed of individual plots of perennial native plant species on city-owned property, tended by local volunteers. Bergmann had a related installation, Portal to The Pollinator Pathway, at Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park in 2012. In 2014, she made presentations on the project at Frye Art Museum and Seattle Tilth.

Certification Since late 2013, Bergmann has offered a certification program for new pathways to use the trademarked Pollinator Pathway name.

Other cities Cities other than Seattle have explored the idea of connecting landscapes for pollinators. In 2008, about the same time the Seattle project was getting under way, the Canadian Pollination Initiative wrote a paper on a "pollinator park" concept to include "...right-of-way passages, including highways, power lines, gas lines and other maintained corridors can be designed in such a way that they serve as pollinator habitats." In 2011, a New York author and artist Aaron Birk wrote an illustrated story, The Pollinator's Corridor, about a pathway connecting the city's landscape.

City–citizen discussions Several cities have used official means to initiate citizen discussions on their own pollinator pathways following Seattle's model, including Redmond, Washington; the Niagara Falls, New York area; and Los Angeles, California via the mayor's blog.

Awards In 2012, Bergmann received The Stranger's Genius Award and Seattle Art Museum's Betty Bowen Award for the project. In 2013, she was named one of Seattle's most influential people of the year by Seattle Magazine, along with recipients of the award who had created other Seattle area pollinator conservation projects.

See also Decline in insect populations Habitat fragmentation Pollinator decline Pollinator garden Pollinator Partnership Pollinator Pathway (organization) Urban rewilding Wildflower strip Wildlife corridor Wildlife garden

Notes

References

Further reading Sheldon Costa (April 16, 2014), "Pollinator pathway buzzes as spring nears", The Spectator (Seattle University) James Ross Gardner (May 1, 2014), "The Botany of Urban Desire: Sarah Bergmann's Pollinator Pathway combines art, ecology, and urban planning. Just don't call it a bee thing.", Seattle Metropolitan Deena Prichep (July 9, 2012), "Part Science, Part Art, Pollinator Pathway Connects Seattle Green Spaces", The Salt blog, NPR Claire Thompson (September 19, 2012), "Bee boulevard: An urban corridor becomes a haven for native pollinators", Grist Tracey Byrne (February 14, 2015) Pollinator Pathway® What Is It Really About? BeePeeking: online journal promoting environmental stewardship and the enhancement of urban ecosystems

External links

The Pollinator Pathway official website Sarah Bergmann Portal to the Pollinator Pathway by Seattle Art Museum on YouTube Sarah Bergmann TEDx talk on YouTube (2015)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Pollinator Pathway

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Pollinator Pathway claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Pollinator Pathway before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Pollinator Pathway ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Pollinator Pathway

In research: The Pollinator Pathway appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Pollinator Pathway in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Pollinator Pathway is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Ecological connectivity, Geography of Seattle, Insect conservation, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Pollinator Pathway outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Pollinator Pathway in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Pollinator Pathway means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Pollinator Pathway out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Pollinator Pathway in simple terms?

Why does The Pollinator Pathway matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Pollinator Pathway?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Pollinator Pathway.