Abstract It is well known that droughts have a significant impact on karst dissolution. However, it is not clear how much karst dissolution will be lost under the impact of droughts, especially the loss of different intensity droughts. The present study used a simple but direct standard carbonate tablet to investigated the karst dissolution loss caused by different intensity droughts for four types of land cover in three sites by a field comparative control experiment. Experiment results showed that the drought had caused a significant loss to karst dissolution. Moreover, with the drought increasing, the karst dissolution showed a clear upward trend. From light to rare level, drought caused a 0.4451 to 2.0546 mg cm-2 of a mean loss of karst dissolution for the forest, 0.3044 to 1.9405 mg cm-2 for cropland, 0.5580 to 2.2760 mg cm-2 for shrubland, and 0.5131 to 4.5336 mg cm-2 of a mean loss of karst dissolution for grassland, respectively, which equivalent to a 31.83 to 54.55% of average loss for the forest, 27.80 to 55.97% for cropland, 39.97 to 48.03% for shrubland, and 36.56 to 64.34% of karst dissolution loss for grassland. Subsequent impact mechanism analysis indicated that soil water plays a crucial role in karst dissolution loss of different intensity droughts. Specifically, drought occurs leads to a decline in precipitation, which in turn undoubtedly reduces the soil water, weakens the karst dissolution process, and finally causes the loss of karst dissolution.