Pompeu Fabra team spends a month on Ascension Island to model its planted forest
Two Pompeu Fabra researchers spent a month on Ascension Island studying how a 19th-century planting project created a rainforest. Víctor Maull said the model they are working with explains a local case, and the lab wants to transfer what it learns elsewhere.
The Scientist · Science desk
What happened
- According to the account, Darwin and Hooker designed a system to plant seeds from the empire's botanical gardens, aiming to harness the moisture of the clouds.
- Five decades of planting turned what the account calls a sun-scorched volcanic rock into a rainforest.
- Before the planting, the island held about half a dozen species of dwarf ferns.
- The team read nautical charts, logbooks and handwritten letters in the national archives to reconstruct how the planting was run.
Why it matters
- What's now possible capability A documented, dated planting effort lets modellers study recovery from a known intervention, where their usual material is ecosystems in decline.
- What it limits constraint The planting was designed around cloud moisture, so a dry site without a comparable supply cannot assume Ascension's result.
- Who has to decide decision A restoration planner has little to act on until the soil analyses are done and the model's transfer beyond one local case is shown.
The work so far is a field visit, an archive search and a model under construction. Víctor Maull and Nastassia Knödlseder spent the month on Ascension in collaboration with the island's Department of Conservation and government [1]. They also drew on nautical charts, logbooks and handwritten letters held by the national archives [4].
The archives matter because they date the intervention. Maull put the lab's interest this way: "Normally, we model ecosystems that degrade, but with Ascension we have the opportunity to understand the reverse process and see if we can invert the collapse" [3]. The account describes Ascension as one of the few places on Earth, if not the only one, where such a reversal was deliberate and documented [12]. In our view that makes it a rich record and a thin basis for comparison, since there are few if any similar cases to check a model against.
The planting plan is credited, in the account, to Darwin and Hooker, who wanted to harness "the moisture of the clouds" [9]. The method depends on persistent cloud cover. Maull framed the wider motive as ecosystems "prone to desertification" [11], and the account does not say how many of those have a comparable moisture supply. Maull also described the island's gradient as steep: "There, in just 10 minutes, you can go from walking drenched through a rainforest to experiencing the most intense desert" [7].
On status, Maull was direct. "The model we are working with explains a local case, but everything we learn from Ascension we want to transfer to the world," he said [6]. For now the transfer is an aim, and no paper or measurements have been cited to support it.
The soil work is the next step. Knödlseder said, "The soil changes according to the available nutrients and allows us to identify rapid changes that modulate the ecosystem" [8]. The microbiome analyses will be carried out with the BioFun Lab of the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology in Seville [5].
What to watch
- Results of the soil microbiome analyses with the BioFun Lab in Seville.
- A published model or paper showing whether the Complex Systems Laboratory can reproduce the island's greening from the archive record.
- Any test of the model on a second ecosystem, which would be the first evidence for the transfer Maull describes.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence30
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence35
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
A team from the Complex Systems Laboratory made up of Víctor Maull and Nastassia Knödlseder spent a month on Ascension Island in collaboration with its Department of Conservation and government.
- [2]
Before the planting, the island was a volcanic island inhabited by half a dozen species of dwarf ferns.
- [3]
Víctor Maull said: "Normally, we model ecosystems that degrade, but with Ascension we have the opportunity to understand the reverse process and see if we can invert the collapse."
- [4]
The team consulted historical documents held by the national archives, described as nautical charts, logbooks and handwritten letters.
- [5]
The microbiome analyses of different regions of the island will be carried out in collaboration with the BioFun Lab of the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville.
- [6]
Víctor Maull said: "The model we are working with explains a local case, but everything we learn from Ascension we want to transfer to the world."
- [7]
Víctor Maull said: "There, in just 10 minutes, you can go from walking drenched through a rainforest to experiencing the most intense desert."
- [8]
Nastassia Knödlseder said: "The soil changes according to the available nutrients and allows us to identify rapid changes that modulate the ecosystem."
- [9]
According to the phys.org account, Charles Darwin and Joseph Dalton Hooker, with the idea of "harnessing the moisture of the clouds," designed and organized a system to plant seeds from the British Empire's botanical gardens on the island.
- [10]
Five decades of planting transformed the island from a sun-scorched volcanic rock to a rainforest, according to the account.
- [11]
Víctor Maull said that climate change is causing mass loss of biodiversity and that, increasingly, there are ecosystems that are "prone to desertification."
- [12]
The account describes Ascension as one of the few places on Earth, if not the only one, that has undergone the reverse of ecosystem degradation in such a deliberate and documented way.
Get this ledger inside ChatGPT. Ask about any of our stories and the answer brings its figure, each claim’s verdict and the sources. Free, no account.
Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- phys.orgAscension Island: How a planting project created a lush cloud forest
1 article · October 14, 2026
Topics and entities
Follow any of these and your For You feed starts watching them — no settings page required.
Topics
- Ecological restorationFollow
- Ecosystem modelingFollow
- Soil microbiomeFollow