Features of ecosystem services supply by agroecosystems of the Samara Region gardens

The concept of ecosystem services, which has been developed over the past 20 years in foreign and native scientific literature, is to a different extent specified in relation to various types of ecosystems. A relatively new approach is its application to orchards as important components of human agricultural activity. The ecosystem functions they perform as regards to the volume and implementation effectiveness depend on the regional soil and climatic conditions and the technologies used. For the Samara Region, this problem is considered for the first time. Trends associated with the dynamics of the fruit and berry plantations area in the Russian Federation are discussed, including general indicators decrease simultaneously with the intensive orchards growth. At present, the Samara Region is significantly ahead of neighboring regions in the gardens area, with their minimum area in the Ulyanovsk Region. Other territorial units belonging to the Middle Volga horticultural province of the Saratov Region such as republics of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan possess significant areas occupied by the gardens. In addition to large horticultural farms, the cultivation of fruit crops in the Samara Region is widespread among the local population. Horticultural agrocenoses of industrial and individual kinds, participating in the implementation of ecosystem services do it differently not only because of their different area scale. The authors explain this provision with examples related to specific groups of ecosystem services. The main target ecosystem service, growing of fruits, in terms of assortment and volume in the Samara Region is supplied to a greater extent at the expense of the individual orchards of the population. Agrotechnical features, implying large-scale treatment of industrial gardens with chemicals, pose a greater risk of environmental pollution. A greater variety of cultivated crops, varieties and organisms trophically associated with them as well as less intensive chemicalization level provide the gardens of the population with a leading position in the conservation of biological diversity, both natural and cultivated