These species have evolved to tolerate extreme conditions, including salt spray and saltwater flooding, wind, and intense heat and dryness. They are usually able to survive the most severe storms and serve to protect coastal features such as dunes. The multilayered, deep roots of sea oats, for example, stabilize dunes by holding the soil together. Many animals, including ghost crabs, kestrels, red-winged blackbirds, beach mice, and raccoons live in dunes, and numerous species of shore birds use beaches for nesting habitats or migratory wintering grounds. The shapes and slopes of beaches and dunes are determined by different flows of sand.
Major storms remove sand from beaches and deposit it on sandbars.
Gentler summer waves shift the sand from sandbars back onto the beaches. An important type of upland habitat, this community contains dense thickets of saw palmettos, sand live oaks, cabbage palms, Spanish bayonet, Florida rosemary, and other plants. Coastal strand also supports numerous animals, including gopher tortoises and beach mice, many of which are rare or endangered. It is one of the state's most endangered and rapidly vanishing communities because it is ideal for development, and because exotic species have invaded some remaining areas. While coastal strand once formed an almost continuous band along Florida's east coast, now only a few, isolated stretches remain.