New Delhi, Sept. 1 -- Climate change may have led to the complete colonisation of Polynesia by indigenous Polynesians, a new study has found.

The researchers from the University of Southampton and University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom found that a major shift in South Pacific climate conditions-beginning around 1,000 years ago-may have pushed people to settle further east and move away from increasingly drier conditions in the west.

Samoa and Tongo, islands in western Polynesia were already settled. But as they became drier, more eastern islands like French Polynesia (Tahiti), which were wetter, became more attractive for colonisation.

The study, part of a wider project between Southampton and East Anglia called PROMS (Pacifi...