## 5 Conclusions  
Based on the eight-period China Land Cover Dataset (CLCD) from 1985 to 2020, we compared and analyzed the spatial and temporal variation characteristics of the ESV in different karst areas according to the actual distribution of different karst landform types in Guizhou Province. We drew four conclusions from the results.  
First, in terms of time series, the ESV in Guizhou Province increased from USD 42.748 billion in 1985 to USD 43.133 billion in 2020, showing a trend of first increasing, then decreasing, then increasing, with the largest increase occurring from 2015 to 2020. Spatially, the ESV in Guizhou Province showed an overall distribution characteristic of being low in the middle, and high in the surrounding areas, especially in the east and southeast, which have been concentrated areas of a high ESV. In contrast, central Anshun City and Guiyang City are contiguous areas with a low ESV.  
Second, the total ESV in pure-karst areas has decreased by USD 122 million over the past 35 years, mainly in Dushan County and Libo County of Qiannan Prefecture. The ESV in semi-karst areas increased by USD 367 million, mainly in the northern and central regions in Guizhou Province such as Suiyang County of Zunyi City and Zhijin County of Bijie City. The ESV in non-karst areas increased by USD 140 million, mostly in Pu'an County, Xingyi City, and Yanhe County. The ESV per unit area was as follows: non-karst areas > pure-karst areas > semi-karst areas, and they all showed an upward trend.  
Third, the terrain effect of the ESV in the three landform-type areas showed an inverted \"V\" trend that first increased and then decreased with the change in elevation and slope. The maximum ESV in the pure-karst and semi-karst areas was between 800 and 1100 m above sea level, and the minimum ESV was less than 500 m. The maximum ESV in the non-karst area was between 500 and 800 m and the minimum was in the range of 1400 to 1700 m. The maximum ESV in the non-karst and semi-karst areas was in the range of a 15\({}^{\circ}\) to 25\({}^{\circ}\) slope, and the maximum in the pure-karst areas was between 6\({}^{\circ}\) and 15\({}^{\circ}\).  
Finally, although the ecological environment of Guizhou Province is improving on the whole, the ecological environment is still not well-preserved in some areas. In terms of future land management, attention should be paid to the protection of forest areas, cropland, and other ecosystems, especially to strengthen the ecological environment construction in pure-karst landform areas.  
**Author Contributions:** [PERSON] and [PERSON] designed and developed the research idea. [PERSON] and [PERSON] collected and processed data. [PERSON] wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
**Funding:** This research was funded by the University Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of Guizhou Province (2020 SSD003).  
**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Acknowledgments:** We would like to thank [PERSON]'s team for providing the basic data for the study. We sincerely thank each reviewer for pointing out the shortcomings of the article and the direction for the revision of the article.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.