Our MD simulations and continuum mechanics calculations provided additional atomistic details of Ca 2+ -membrane interactions, and further clariied the question about the controversial membrane curvature caused by Ca 2+ . Although the Ca 2+ concentration used here was much greater than the average physiological Ca 2+ concentration measured experimentally, the electrolytic environment around the biomembranes was by no means a static average distribution of ions. Signiicant localized concentration spikes of Ca 2+ ions occur along Ca 2+ signaling pathways, which are always challenging to measure experimentally and can span in excess of three orders of magnitude, and the Ca 2+ concentration near membranes are known to be higher than that in bulk. Therefore, we believe that our results are not only quantitatively informative for chemical systems but also qualitatively meaningful for biological systems, which would be helpful for the understanding of many membrane stress/curvature-related processes.