Abstract: The functional diversity of aquatic microbial communities in sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) cultural ponds was examined in this paper. The Biolog plate technique and redundancy analysis (RDA) method were used to evaluate seasonal changes and their relationships with environmental factors. The results showed that both total amount and types of carbon sources utilized by microbes in the sea cucumber cultural ponds varied seasonally, and were the highest in summer and lowest in winter, with polymers being the main type of carbon sources. Principal component analysis revealed that the carbon utilization diversity of the microbial communities varied significantly over the seasonal courses. A total of 10 categories of carbon sources were significantly related to the principal component 1, among which were polymers, carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, amino acids, and amines. Significant seasonal changes were detected for all carbon utilization diversity indices of the microbial communities, including Shannon, McIntosh, Simpson, and SE. However, seasonal variations were different among the microbial diversity indices. RDA analysis revealed that TP, NO₃^--N, TN, and PO₄^3--P were the critical environmental factors influencing the seasonal changes in functional diversity of aquatic microbial community in sea cucumber cultural ponds.