Bedrock exposure is a common phenomenon in karst area, which forms "rocky desertification" similar to desertscape. And the occurrence and development of rocky desertification affect the mechanism and results of regional soil erosion. Therefore, it is necessary to study the quantitative relationship between rocky desertification factors (D) and soil and water loss in order to revise soil loss equations. On the basis of reviewing domestic and abroad literatures, this paper summarized the research status of the impact of rock exposure on soil erosion on slope. The results showed that the research conclusions were relatively discrete, and the viewpoints fell mainly into two categories. One was that the soil and water loss tended to decline in a linear, quadratic function and exponential trend with the increases of rock exposure rates, and the exponential attenuation was the main way; the other was that the effect of rock exposure on soil and water loss on slope was complex, which was related to slope gradient, soil type, rainfall stage and range of rock exposure rate. Under the certain conditions, with the increases of rock exposure rates, soil erosion would be intensified. For the research status of D-factor in karst areas in China, we think that there are two main problems:One is that there are few quantitative observation experiments between D-factor and soil and water loss, which limits the application of RUSLE and other commonly used soil loss equations in karst areas; the other is that field positioning observation is an important means to study soil erosion factors, but the construction of natural rock exposure runoff plot in karst areas is very difficult. The results can provide a reference for the quantitative study of D-factor and the correction of soil loss equation in karst areas of China.