青岛希尼尔翻译公司（www.sinosenior.com）2019年1月2日编辑整理：

2012年蛟龙号载人潜水器，在6963米的海底发现了海参的踪迹，而在自然条件下，刺参多分布在3-5米水深的浅海潮间带，成参在夏季有向水深10m海区移动的现象（廖玉麟，1997），也有学者在20m水深处发现刺参（Gavrilova et al.，2011）。在垂直空间上，刺参的分布与其个体大小有一定相关性，随水深的增加，刺参表现出明显的分层现象，即小个体刺参通常分布于水深较浅的区域，大个体通常分布于水深较深的海域(Dubrovskii et al.)。既然海参能够分布在近7000米的海底，说明其具有耐受高压的能力，但刺参却仅生活在水深20m以内的海区，是否是压强因素限制了刺参的垂直分布，还未曾有人进行相关研究。

In 2012, the manned submersible Jiaolong discovered the trace of sea cucumber in the depth of 6,963m at the seabed. However, in the natural condition, A. japonicus mostly distribute in the intertidal zone of shallow sea in a depth of three to five meters, and there is a phenomenon that adult sea cucumber move to the 10 meter-deep sea area in summer (LIAO Yulin, 1997). Some scholars also found A. japonicus at 20m deep (Gavrilova et al., 2011) in the past. In the vertical space, the distribution of A. japonicus has certain relevance with its individual size. With the increase of water depth, obvious stratification phenomenon appear in A. japonicus, namely, the small generally distribute in the relatively shallow zone while the large in the deep zone (Dubrovskii et al.). Since A. japonicus can distribute at the seabed nearly 7,000 meters deep, it shows that it has the capacity of high-pressure resistance, but it can only live in the sea area within 20m deep, no one has ever carried out relevant studies whether the factor of pressure intensity limits its vertical distribution.

现阶段，我国开展刺参增养殖的海区深度一般在10m左右，而水深10m以内，符合刺参生活习性，可用于大面积增养殖的区域毕竟有限，如若证实刺参能够在水深更深的环境中生存，则可极大拓展刺参增养殖区域，缓解现阶段浅海增养殖压力。解决这一问题的关键，即刺参能否在此水深环境中生存，而这主要涉及刺参能否承受该水深压强。同时，有周玮 等（2001）发现刺参的浮游幼虫在自然环境中会出现分布分层的情况，表层和8m 水层分布最少，3m水层分布最多，水深对于刺参幼虫的分布是否有影响，对其附着变态是否也有影响呢？