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This assemblage comprises those invertebrates which are most strongly associated with bark and cambium.

This is generally a distinct assemblage of species although there are close links with sap runs and freshly dead trunks and branches which remain sappy. The cambial layer is the richest part of dead and dying wood in terms of availability of nutrients and this is reflected in the range of specialist invertebrates exploiting the situation.

This category is subdivided into three key components: a general association with dead and decaying trunks, stumps, branches and twigs, partly related to the dead and decaying sapwood; the bark and cambial layer; and subterranean decay provided by roots and trunk bases, and buried wood generally.

Wet rot-holes tend to support the widest range of specialist invertebrates and so this fauna has been categorised under heartwood decay. However, some invertebrates also exploit other types of tree cavity involving natural pockets formed amongst tree root bases and/or in the top of the trunk amongst tight branch forks.