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Carbon isotope ratio (delta C-13) and nitrogen isotope ratio (delta N-15) of leaf in shrubs and overground matter in herbage were measured on plant species occurring in different aged artificial sand-binding microhabitats, as well as in natural habitat at the south-eastern margin of the Tengger Desert. China Both delta C-13 and delta N-15 of C-3 and C-4 plants varied widely (-28 12 <=delta C-13 (parts per thousand)<=-23 77 and -4 45 <=delta N-15 (parts per thousand)<= 3.66 for C-3 species, respectively; and -15 79 <=delta C-13 (parts per thousand)<=-12 63 and -7.56 <=delta N-15 (parts per thousand)<= 1 08 for C-4 species, respectively). representing the different photosynthetic pathway (C-3/C-4) environmental controls. The relative abundance of C-4 species increased over the development of the sand-fixing vegetation, and the significant differences among sites in delta N-15 of C-4 plants were found. Among the microhabitats. the isotopic pattern of artificial sand-fixing community is a cluster compared to that of natural vegetation and transitional zones in C-4 plants, however, this pattern of C-3 plants is different significantly. The biological soil crust had significant effect on delta C-13 of C-3 plants, not for delta C-13 of C-4 plants and delta N-15 of both C-3 and C-4 species. Our results also describe a distinct pattern of dual-isotopic signatures, which indicated that a different water-use source and soil nitrogen compartment occurred and may promote the coexistence of different life forms in extreme poor water and nutrients ecosystems. With respect to C-4 plants, the gramineous plants based on family - level exhibit obviously negative isotopic values (both delta N-15 and delta C-13) than those of chenopodiaceous plants, indicating a high water-use efficiency of gramineous C-4 plants and more N-15 depleted, and these differences may be a result of different functional groups of C-4 species. For C-3 plants, the chenopodiaceous species also show more N-15 enrichment than those of plants from other families (e g composite. leguminous plants and others) Contrast to previous studies, the delta N-15 values of leguminous plants were not closer to the delta N-15 of atmospheric nitrogen gas, indicating that leguminous plants in research region used nitrogen mainly from other N sources such as soil, rain/dust, not mainly from biological fixed nitrogen The correlation between delta C-13 and delta N-15 of C-3 plants (except leguminous plants) were negative significantly (P=0001). while there were positive relationship between delta C-13 and delta N-15 in C-3 leguminous plants (P=0003) and C-4 plants (P<0.0001), indicating that in the water and nutrient limiting region the carbon and nitrogen discriminations are dependent and linked intimately, and vary with the plant species and photosynthetic pathway. (C) 2009 Elsevier B V All rights reserved