Environmental conditions of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica have varied little for >5 million years but are now changing. Here, we investigated how warming affects competition for space. Little considered in the polar regions, this is a critical component of biodiversity response. Change in competition in response to environment forcing might be detectable earlier than individual species presence/absence or performance measures (e.g. growth). Examination of fauna on artificial substrata in Antarctica’s shallows at ambient or warmed temperature found that, mid-century predicted 1°C warming (throughout the year or just summer-only), increased the probability of individuals encountering spatial competition, as well as density and complexity of such interactions. 2°C, late century predicted warming, increased variance in the probability and density of competition, but overall, competition did not significantly differ from ambient (control) levels. In summary only 1°C warming increased probability, density and complexity of spatial competition, which seems to be summer-only driven.

南极洲周围南大洋的环境条件在超过 500 万年的时间里变化不大，但现在正在发生变化。在这里，我们调查了变暖如何影响空间竞争。在极地地区很少考虑，这是生物多样性响应的关键组成部分。响应于环境强迫的竞争变化可能比单个物种的存在/缺失或性能测量（例如生长）更早被检测到。在环境温度或温暖温度下对南极浅滩人工基质上的动物群进行的检查发现，本世纪中叶预测的 1°C 变暖（全年或仅夏季），增加了个体遇到空间竞争的可能性，以及密度和这种交互的复杂性。2°C，世纪末预测变暖，竞争的差异和密度增加，但总体而言，竞争与环境（控制）水平没有显着差异。总之，仅 1°C 的变暖就增加了空间竞争的概率、密度和复杂性，这似乎只是夏季驱动的。