Nature conservation in post-soviet countries is hampered by variable vegetation classification systems preventing the identification of unique biotopes. In this project, I will develop a unified classification system for sand biotopes in Ukraine, analyze rare and invasive species, and suggest conservation measures. The purpose is: 1) to analyze whether and how Ukrainian sand vegetation fits into the European habitat classification scheme and 2) to analyze climatic associations and predict future range distributions for key plant species throughout their distribution area (i.e., Ukraine and areas throughout Europe, depending on the species). I am going to use large data of high quality for SDM modeling.