It turns out that there were about nine different environmental factors -- some, rather subtle ones -- that were working against the Easter Islanders, and they involve fallout of volcanic tephra, latitude, rainfall. Perhaps the most subtle of them is that it turns out that a major input of nutrients which protects island environments in the Pacific is from the fallout of continental dust from central Asia.
Resulta que hay hasta nueve factores medioambientales diferentes, algunos de ellos bastante sutiles, que conspiraban contra los rapanui, y que incluían las lluvias de tefra volcánica, la latitud o las precipitaciones lluviosas. Quizá el más sutil de todos sea que un aporte fundamental de nutrientes que proteje a los territorios insulares del Pacífico proviene de la caída de polvo continental desde Asia central.