Actually, they are adjacent in the museum, as they are in the real world. The first part of the exhibit showed how volcanic islands form, erode, turn into atolls, and eventually end up as underwater reefs. The next part of the exhibit tells you about what it would be like to live on a particular atoll, the Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It's not a tropical paradise. Not much to eat other than coconuts and fish.
Drinking water is a constant problem.
You can try to catch rain water, but there are dry seasons. On some atolls you can dig a well and find fresh water, but heavy seas crashing over the island can foul it. And there's little natural protection from tropical storms and limited building materials for artificial shelter. In another section of the Pacific hall there is a re-creation of a market scene from Papeete, Tahiti. The shops had signs in French, Chinese and English.