RESEARCH ARTICLE Assessing the chemical behavior and spatial distribution of yttrium and rare earth elements (YREEs) in a coastal aquifer adjacent to the Urmia Hypersaline Lake, NW Iran Nassim Sohrabi 1 & Nasrollah Kalantari 1 & Vahab Amiri 2 & Mohammad Nakhaei 2 Received: 3 December 2016 /Accepted: 26 June 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017 Abstract This study aims to shed light on the seasonal be- havior of yttrium and rare earth elements (YREEs) in the Urmia Aquifer (UA), in the immediate vicinity of Urmia Lake (UL) in Iran. Samples of groundwater, collected under dry and wet conditions in coastal wells of UA, suggest a large degree of variability in both YREE abundance and normalized patterns. Although weathering or water-rock interactions (be- tween the surface/groundwater and rock samples) were pre- dicted to be the most probable source in explaining YREEs in groundwater samples, results to the contrary indicate that the groundwater do not inherit aquifer rock-like YREE signatures in the study area; this might be due to the relative stability of YREEs during the process of water-rock interactions, which suggest that methods based on YREEs can be beneficial in discrimination of water sources. Furthermore, findings dem- onstrated no significant relationship between Ce/Ce* and sa- linity (0.08 and 0.05 in wet and dry seasons, respectively), and between Eu/Eu* and salinity (0.1 and -0.04 in wet and dry seasons, respectively). Dissimilarity of patterns of YREEs in rock and water samples reveals YREEs as no conservative tracers in determining the UL saltwater intrusion into coastal groundwater. Therefore, the groundwater YREE concentra- tions and fractionation patterns in UA warrant controlling by coastal aquifer need to be controlled by other chemical weathering, adsorption, desorption, and solution complexa- tion reactions. Finally, comparison of REE concentration values in groundwater samples with corresponding indicative admissible drinking water concentrations (IAC) demonstrated their suitability for drinking purposes. Keywords Yttrium and rare earth elements (YREEs) . Coastal groundwater . Indicative admissible drinking water concentration (IAC) . Urmia Hypersaline Lake Introduction The REEs, which are comprised of a collection of 14 trace metals of the lanthanide series and yttrium (the geochemical twin of holmium with similar behavior) (Shouyang et al. 2011), have been employed in several studies to examine geo- logical processes such as crust evolution, water/rock interac- tions, weathering processes, and paleoclimate variations (e.g., Johannesson et al. 1997; Johannesson et al. 2006; Tweed et al. 2006; Kralj and Kralj 2009; Huaming et al. 2010; Shouyang et al. 2011). Recently, increasing attention has been directed to the use of REEs in aqueous REE-bearing systems such as river, lake, sea, and groundwater (Ojiambo et al. 2003; Johannesson et al. 2006; Hannigan et al. 2010; Johannesson et al. 2011). Some researchers (Middlesworth and Wood 1998; Steinmann and Stille 1998; Brunsmann et al. 2001; Schijf and Byrne 2001; Kohler et al. 2005; Guoquan et al. 2007; Hetherington et al. 2010) believe that research on the behavior Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues * Vahab Amiri vahab.amiri@gmail.com Nassim Sohrabi n.sohrabi1986@gmail.com Nasrollah Kalantari n.kalantari@scu.ac.ir Mohammad Nakhaei nakhaeimohammad@gmail.com 1 Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran 2 Department of Applied Geology, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Kharazmi University, P.O. Box 31979-37551, Tehran, Iran Environ Sci Pollut Res DOI 10.1007/s11356-017-9644-7