Microclimate: Vegetation and Fauna is an extended and updated version of the Dutch text Mikroklimaat, Vegetatie en Fauna. The aim in writing Microclimate: Vegetation and Fauna was to consider microclimate from an ecological point of view. Herein, the great physical diversity of natural and semi-natural habitats is stressed, a diversity which to a large extent is created by biological forces and at the same time is a condition which maintains biological diversity. Of necessity, the physical and biological interaction of plants and animals with their immediate atmospheric environment is also considered.
Several other texts, especially physical ones, have dealt with aspects of microclimate. Nevertheless, the authors thought that there was room for a more ecological approach, which did not overlap too much with these more general texts. They have deliberately reduced the treatment of those subjects which received a great deal of attention in other textbooks, while, on the other hand, they have been more extensive where they could offer their own new findings, or where their treatment could make a topic more understandable.
Microclimate: Vegetation and Fauna is written for ecologically interested vegetation scientists plant and animal ecologists, biogeographers, foresters and agriculturists. Biologically interested climatologists, geographers, environmental scientists, landscape planners and amateur naturalists with some physical background may possibly find something useful in it as well.