The coastal oak-pine hardwood system thrives across a variety of soil moisture tolerances and is expected to find micro-habitats and refugia in order to persist in some form on the landscape, increasing its adaptive capacity.

Oak-pine forests are relatively diverse in terms of species and ecosystem functions. These forests occur on a wide variety of soils and landforms. In general, areas that are north-facing, at higher elevations, or are farther north in the region are expected to undergo less change compared to forests in warmer, drier, or more southerly locations, particularly where past land use, land development, fragmentation, invasive species, or other factors have already impaired the system.