Ranunculus fluitans (Flutender Hahnenfuß) und Rheinfallschaum
Zusammenhänge, Analytik und ökotoxikologische Bedeutung
Ranunculus fluitans (River Water-crowfoot) and Foam on the Fall at the Rhine in Schaffhausen
Christian Wegner

Since the beginning of the 1970s massive formations of foam have been noticed below the Falls of the Rhine near Schaffhausen (Switzerland) in the summertime. This work uncovers the origin of that phenomena. It shows that the formation of foam is not caused by synthetic tensides stemming from the waste water of the industries and private households, as was assumed at first. As part of a doctor’s thesis prepared at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in Jena it was scientifically proven that tensides of biogenic origin stemming from the river-crowfoot (ranunculus fluitans), which greatly propagated due to an increase in the pollution of the nutritive substances in the Rhine River, are responsible for the masses of foam.

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