Stable isotope ecology laboratory (SIEL) is a group of research scientists, graduates, and undergraduates who are in GIST (Gwangju Institute of Science&Technology). Addressing the complex linkages and feedbacks between climate and ecological systems is one of the highest priority research areas in science as well as for human societies. One of the greatest concerns of scientists is the possibility that global changes will be too rapid for organisms to adapt and this could result in large and abrupt changes in ecosystems.

More comprehensive studies are needed to address the impacts of the frequencies and intensities of disturbance regimes on marine ecosystems. This knowledge will help us to develop a better mechanistic understanding of ecosystem processes and to increase our ability to make predictions of marine ecosystem responses and feedbacks to global changes. The most important question of our previous and ongoing research has been: How do environmental changes affect structural and functional biodiversity? Individual-, population- and community-level research has focused on identifying biological and ecological processes that influence ecosystem productivity, energy and nutrient flows, sensitive life stages and behaviors of organisms and the distributions and interactions of species.