The issue of ocean corrosion in coastal areas, particularly in concrete structures partially buried in the soil has attracted wide attention has garnered attention due to the unique challenges it presents. This study investigates the enhanced chloride ions intrusion in concrete due to bidirectional unsaturated gradients between the parts buried in soil and those exposed to the air. A 90-day chloride salt erosion experiment was conducted on both fully buried and semi-buried concrete across five different soil environments to analyze the transport properties of chloride ions. Drilling powder sampling and the detection of free chloride ion content in the concrete specimens were performed at intervals of 30, 60, and 90 days. The results indicate that the chloride ions in semi-buried concrete exhibit bidirectional unsaturated migration toward the airexposed end, leading to significantly peak chloride ion concentrations at the air-exposed end compared to those subjected to wet-dry cycles in a pure salt solution. Specifically, after a 90-day cycle, the total chloride contents at the air-exposed end of semi-buried concrete in pure sandy soil, 50 % clay soil, and pure clay soil increased by 68.8 %, 43.1 %, and 16.4 %, respectively. Soils with lower permeability intensified the vertical unsaturation gradient within the concrete, accelerating chloride ion migration towards the exposed end and resulting in higher accumulation at elevated positions. The research work underscores the critical impact of bi-directional unsaturated transport on concrete durability in coastal environments and calls for a deeper understanding of its applications for corrosion prevention.

The climate changes have caused more extreme precipitation and drought events in the field and have exacerbated the severity of wet-dry events in soils, which will inevitably lead to severe fluctuations in soil moisture content. Soil moisture content has been recognized to influence the distribution of heavy metals, but how temporal changes of soil moisture dynamics affect the release rates and lability of heavy metals is still poorly understood, which precludes accurate prediction of environmental behavior and environmental risk of heavy metals in the field. In this study, we combined experimental and modeling approaches to quantify copper release rates and labile copper fractions in two paddy soils from southern China under different moisture conditions. Our kinetic data and models showed that the release rates and lability of copper were highly associated with the soil moisture contents, in which, surprisingly, high soil moisture contents effectively reduced the release rates of copper even with little changes in the reactive portions of copper in soils. A suite of comprehensive characterization on soil solid and solution components along the incubation suggested that soil microbes may regulate soil copper lability through forming microbially derived organic matter that sequestered copper and by increasing soil particle aggregation for protecting copper from release. This study highlights the importance of incorporating soil moisture dynamics into future environmental models. The experimental and modeling approaches in this study have provided basis for further developing predictive models applicable to paddy soils with varying soil moisture under the impact of climate change.