system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How does a remote island get grass and vegetation when it first forms? Or soil for that matter?
gpt
Currents in wind and water as well as birds carry all kinds of seeds over 100s and 1000s of km. Remote islands might be way stations on further flights of birds. What they carry in their feathers or stomaches can seed. This is no different from land based vegetation, that often also has its seeds carried by animals to further away places.

Soil is also carried with wind and water and as soon as any vegetation can hold root (means stuff starts to grow and die), for examble in fertile volcanic ash, you can have more diverse soil form over a longer time.