Scientists have solved a 66 million year old mystery about why the earth cooled after the age of the dinosaurs.

A new study led by former Syracuse University doctoral student Ruliang He and co-authored by his advisor, Earth and environmental sciences Professor Zunli Lu, reveals that Earth's ancient tropical oceans were fundamentally different from today's. The research, recently published in Nature Geoscience, shows marine oxygen levels were higher near the equator than at the middle latitudes during the Proterozoic Eon, which began 2.5 billion years ago and ended 539 million years ago. 

Atmospheric scientist Amanda Staudt will join the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the professional society for weather, water, and climate sciences and services, as its new executive director in March 2026. 

This study develops a spatial "source-flow-use" accounting framework to quantify the supply and allocation of high-quality water resources (HQWRs) from ecological conservation areas. Using a national park case study, it reveals significant allocation mismatches, with agriculture consuming over one-third of HQWRs while higher-value sectors receive minimal shares. Billions of cubic meters of HQWRs remain underutilized. The framework offers a replicable metric for instituting ecological compensation, differentiated pricing, and improved governance by valuing pristine water at its source, thereby integrating protected-area ecosystem services into regional water management.