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. Easter, of all Pacific islands, has the least input of dust
结论是这大约涉及到了9种不同的环境因子， 每一种都异常微妙，这些因子都给复活节岛带来了 消极的影响，这些因子涉及火山喷发产生的沉降物， 所在地的纬度以及降雨量。也许这些因子中最微妙的一个， 是沉降在岛屿上的那些主要来自亚洲的大陆尘埃， 这些尘埃，附带着大量的营养物质， 而正是这些营养物质，保护着太平洋上这些岛屿的生态环境。 在恢复土壤肥力的过程中，所有太平洋的岛屿都能从来自亚洲的大陆尘埃获利，