This project was conceived as a multidisciplinary integrated study to determine the physiological limits of native and non-native species to dry, nutrient-poor environmental conditions on a steep-sided sand dike and on sand piles. Only when the limits of survival are known for native and non-native species, can there be a successful selection of species that will survive the unusually severe climate of a drought year that may occur every 25-50 yr. The chance of field trials falling within one of these severe drought years is small. Thus this project, via field and laboratory tests, was designed to determine the limits to growth of native and non-native graminoid and woody species under moisture and nutrient stress conditions.