Water fleas are tiny animals that live in ponds.
The Table shows information about the two types of reproduction in water fleas.
Table
| Feature | Asexual reproduction | Sexual reproduction |
|---|---|---|
| Mean number of offspring per female per week | 24 | 3 |
| Time from birth to first reproduction in days | 7 | 14 |
| Is a male needed? | no | yes |
Use the Table to give two advantages of asexual reproduction for water fleas.
Explain why it is an advantage for water fleas to switch to sexual reproduction when conditions become poor.
At the start of week 1, a pond contains one female water flea.
During each week, every female present at the start of that week produces 24 female offspring by asexual reproduction. No water fleas die.
Calculate the number of water fleas in the pond at the end of week 2.
186 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Biology 5.1 Inheritance, covering 5.1.1 The genome, 5.1.2 Environment and phenotype, 5.1.3 Variants and mutations, 5.1.4 How genetic variants influence phenotype, 5.1.5 Asexual and sexual reproduction, 5.1.6 Haploid and diploid, 5.1.7 Meiotic cell division, 5.1.8 Single gene inheritance, 5.1.9 Predicting single gene crosses, 5.1.10 Sex determination, 5.1.11 Multiple gene inheritance, and 5.1.12 Development of our understanding of genetics. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.