New trees can eventually grow on a barren island as well... but I think it's not really practical in the article's time frames to make a point of the distinction, in either case.
> New trees can eventually grow on a barren island as well...
Not necessarily (with no trees, the island is at the mercy of erosion) save for geological-scale "eventually". And that's not the same, the tree is lost and you need a new tree to take its place, that's not what happens to water unless you dissociate it.