As the influence of humans on our landscapes and soils continues to increase, the development of frameworks for characterizing human-altered & human-transported soils, or soils on anthropogenic landforms, are needed to conceptualize our environment in a changing world. To better understand how soils function and contribute to biogeochemical cycles under profound alteration by humans, I am investigating soil development and organic matter dynamics in reclaimed mine soils in the Appalachian mountains. Despite severe degradation, these soils show great promise for structural development and carbon sequestration, two vital soil functions for adaptation to environmental change.  I intend to examine organic carbon trajectories of these soils under land use shifts through the probing of plant-microbial mechanisms, oragno-mineral interactions, and proximal & remote sensing-based predictive modeling.