It is unclear why a slight decrease in calciumion levels occurred during exposure to 5 °C air. The pH remained stable during emersion and the recovery phase, yet the calcium ion levels were only regained towards the end of the recovery period. There was a quite a bit of variation in calcium ion levels even in the pre-treatment measurements. The samples were taken from different starfish at each time point, the size range was constricted to mediumstars , we did not record the mass of the stars for each sample and it is possible there may have been variation even within this size range.