The data consists of potential phosphatase activity released by fine roots in old growth forests in Central Amazon. Fine roots younger than three months were sampled using the ingrowth core technique in a large-scale nutrient fertilisation experiment. Phosphatase activity is given as a mean of the plant community per plot, where five points inside each plot were sampled and separated in two different soil layers (0-10 and 10-30cm). Samples were collected in February 2018, eight months after the nutrient fertilisation started at the AFEX project area in Manaus, Brazil at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP/ INPA). The study was funded by NERC, BDFFP (logistical support) and Brazilian government (student scholarship) Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/6529004d-b6e8-429d-ac68-0f5324d7e5d0
