Most research using the scoring method by Norton, such as "TOWARDS A METHOD TO SET PRIORITIES AMONGST SPECIES FOR TREE IMPROVEMENT RESEARCH - A CASE STUDY FROM WEST AFRICA" by Jaenicke (1995) receives their score through interviews and questionnaires send to farmers, practitioners or researchers. In my master thesis (Tree selection for an Agroforestry system) however, I want to create this score primarily on existing literature, and complement it by sending questionnaires to experts only for those criteria, where literature is missing. This means I would have to define my own scale (e.g. what pH tolerance of a tree may be suited or not suited to a specific soil) to objectify this very subjective method as much as possible. I am thus wondering, if this could be a feasible way to conduct this method?
In the Handbook "Monitoring and Evaluating Agricultural Research (1993)" Norton speaks of using literature for identifying criteria, but not necessarily for scoring itself, thus I am a little bit confused and would appreciate your help!
A combination of soil scientists, who typically inventory and map soils, their physical, biological, chemical and moisture regimes and botanists who work to identify native species as well as any desirable or allowable non-native species (ie, non invasive) do typically inventory and map conditions as you suggest. If you have maps of soils series and native species boundaries, you may find some of the available information desired. When analyzing specific activities, such as silvipasture, frequent biomass removal or specialized wildlife treatments, then the activities and actions may necessitate avoiding some species that are sensitive, such as are damaged by compaction, fire, animal damage, too much sunlight (intolerant species selected), too little sunlight (shade tolerant species selected), etc.
Tree improvement programs don't always yield the long term results desired. Taller and faster growing trees may be weaker in strength and subjected to more storm or other damage in some circumstances, such as a National Forest where old growth, storm resilience and longer rotations become more important.
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