Short communicationGlobal warming affects the occurrence of stem borers in ecological engineering-based diversified farming ecosystems

•We performed the biologically diversified farming in paddy ecosystems.•9-year monitoring of rice stem borers was conducted on Chongming Island of China.•Meteorological factors affected the occurrence of rice stem borers.•Global warming might promote the occurrence of striped stem borer in the future.•Global warming might inhibit the occurrence of pink stem borer in the future.

Ecological engineering-based diversified farming systems contribute to the delivery of ecosystem services, which is critical for biological control of pests in agro-ecosystems. In paddy ecosystems, rice stem borers are the most destructive lepidopteran pests that have been studied in detail, but the effects of meteorological factors related to global change on these pests have been scarcely explored. Our 9-year data from Chongming Island of China indicated that there was an exponential decay each year in the numbers of adult pink stem borers and striped stem borers trapped in the lamp in ecological engineering-based diversified farming ecosystems. By stepwise regression analysis, we found that both average daily temperature and average daily wind velocity had significantly negative effects while sunshine duration had a significantly positive effect on the number of adult pink stem borers, and that average daily temperature significantly and positively affected while average daily wind significantly and negatively affected the number of adult striped stem borers. Our study reveals that global warming might promote the occurrence of striped stem borers but inhibit the occurrence of pink stem borers in the future.