AQA GCSE Biology Paper 2 Foundation June 2025 question paper 8461/2F

Some people keep rabbits as pets.

Figure 1 shows two types of rabbit.

The fur colour pattern in the Himalayan rabbit is caused by a dominant allele.

What is a dominant allele?

Tick (✓) one box.

In Questions 01.2 and 01.3, use the following symbols: H = dominant allele for Himalayan fur pattern h = recessive allele for white fur.

What is the genotype of a white rabbit?

Tick (✓) one box.

A male Himalayan rabbit was crossed with a female Himalayan rabbit.

The male rabbit and the female rabbit each had the heterozygous genotype Hh.

Some of the offspring were Himalayan rabbits and some of the offspring were white rabbits.

Complete the Punnett square diagram in Figure 2.

You should show:

• the male gametes

• the offspring genotypes.

Some of the offspring in Figure 2 are homozygous and some are heterozygous.

Draw a ring around the genotype of one homozygous offspring in Figure 2.

Four offspring were born.

How many of the four offspring would you expect to be Himalayan rabbits?

Use Figure 2.

Tick (✓) one box.

Inheritance of sex in rabbits is the same as inheritance of sex in humans.

A female rabbit has two X chromosomes in each body cell.

How many X chromosomes does a male rabbit have in each body cell?

Tick (✓) one box.

Some of the offspring in Figure 2 would be male and some of the offspring would be female.

How many of the four offspring in Question 01.5 would you predict to be female?

Some human responses are reflex actions.

Give two features of a reflex action.

Figure 3 shows the nerve pathway for moving a hand away from a sharp object.

Complete the sentences.

Choose answers from the box.

When the finger touches the sharp object, the point

Nerve impulses reach the arm muscle which is the

P, Q and R in Figure 3 are three types of neurone.

Draw one line from each letter to the type of neurone.

The gap between two neurones is called a synapse.

How does information travel across the synapse?

Tick (✓) one box.

Two students investigated reaction time.

This is the method used.

1. Student A holds a metre rule just above student B ’s hand, as shown in Figure 4.

2. Student A lets go of the metre rule.

3. Student B catches the metre rule as quickly as possible.

4. Student A writes down the reading from the scale on the metre rule.

5. Students A and B repeat steps 1 to 4 two more times.

Table 1 shows the results.

Calculate mean value X in Table 1.

The students concluded:

‘Practice improved the speed of student B ’s reaction.’

Give evidence for the students’ conclusion.

Use Table 1.

Suggest one way to improve the investigation.

New cells are produced by cell division.

Figure 5 shows sperm formation in a human.

Where in the body are sperm cells produced?

How many chromosomes are there in cell A and in cell D ?

Choose answers from the box.

Complete the sentence.

Choose the answer from the box.

Strawberry plants can reproduce both sexually and asexually.

Figure 6 shows a strawberry plant reproducing:

• sexually, using flowers, fruits and seeds

• asexually, using horizontal stems called runners.

Meiosis produces gametes.

What is the name of the male gamete in a flower?

Tick (✓) one box.

Which process produces new cells in runners?

Tick (✓) one box.

Substances used for growth pass through the runners from the parent plant to the offspring plants.

Which two substances pass through the runners?

Tick (✓) two boxes.

Sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction each have different advantages for the strawberry plant.

Give one advantage of reproducing sexually.

Give one advantage of reproducing asexually.

It is important to maintain the water balance of the body.

The volume of water a person gained and lost was measured on a day the person did no exercise.

Table 2 shows how much water the person gained and lost by different methods on the day.

Figure 7 shows some of the data from Table 2.

Complete Figure 7.

You should:

• plot the data for sweat and for breathing from Table 2

• label each bar.

On another day, the person ran in a long-distance race.

What would happen to the volume of water lost by sweating on the day of the race?

Tick (✓) one box.

The kidneys control the amount of water in the body.

Draw one line from each process in the kidneys to the name of that process.

A person with kidney failure can be treated by dialysis or by a kidney transplant.

For dialysis:

• a person needs 3 dialysis sessions each week

• each session can last 6 to 8 hours

• each session has to happen in a hospital.

For a kidney transplant:

• a suitable donor is needed

• a surgical operation is needed.

Evaluate the use of a kidney transplant instead of dialysis for treating kidney failure.

Include your own knowledge in your answer.

Figure 8 shows part of a DNA molecule.

The letters A, C, G and T in Figure 8 represent four different compounds.

What are A, C, G and T called?

Tick (✓) one box.

The section of DNA shown in Figure 8 contains the following sequence of these compounds:

A G T A A G T A C

A sequence of three compounds codes for one amino acid.

How many amino acids would this section of DNA code for?

Sometimes a change occurs in the sequence of the compounds A, C, G and T in the DNA.

What name is given to a change in DNA?

Tick (✓) one box.

Changes in the DNA of a bacterial pathogen can produce new strains of the pathogen.

Many people have been infected with a bacterial pathogen called MRSA.

Figure 9 shows how many cases of MRSA occurred in one country from 1993 to 2011.

Calculate the mean rate of increase in MRSA cases per year in the 12 years from 1993 to 2005.

Most antibiotics will not kill MRSA bacteria.

Which word describes bacteria that are not killed by antibiotics?

Tick (✓) one box.

Figure 9 shows that the number of cases of MRSA decreased after 2006.

Suggest one reason for this decrease.

Different species in a habitat may depend on each other for food.

Several food chains may be linked together to form a food web.

Figure 10 shows a food web in a lake.

Most organisms in the food web get their energy by eating other organisms.

Where does the pondweed get energy from?

Tick (✓) one box.

Name one organism from Figure 10 that is a primary consumer.

There are four trophic levels in Figure 10.

Which is the correct pyramid of biomass for the food web in Figure 10 ?

Tick (✓) one box.

One of the food chains in Figure 10 is:

10% of the biomass in each trophic level is transferred to the next trophic level.

What percentage of the biomass in the algae is transferred to the fish?

Tick (✓) one box.

What are two ways that energy is lost from organisms in the food chain?

Tick (✓) two boxes.

Scientists counted the number of fish, snails and worms in a sample taken from the lake.

Table 3 shows the results.

Many farmers keep animals such as cows and chickens.

The animals produce a lot of manure (faeces).

The farmer can put the manure into a biogas generator.

In the biogas generator, microorganisms produce biogas.

Figure 11 shows the percentages of the gases found in a sample of biogas.

Calculate the percentage of carbon dioxide in the biogas in Figure 11.

Scientists investigated biogas production from manure produced by cows and by chickens.

The scientists measured the production of biogas for 6 weeks.

Figure 12 shows the results.

The scientists made three conclusions from the results.

Give evidence from Figure 12 to support each conclusion.

Conclusion 1: ‘It is better to use chicken manure than cow manure for making biogas.’

Conclusion 2: ‘Biogas production is fastest in the first week.’

Conclusion 3: ‘After 4 weeks it is a waste of money to run the biogas generator.’

Another group of scientists investigated the effect of adding fish fat to the manure used for biogas production.

Fish fat is a waste product from the sea fishing industry.

Table 4 shows the results.

Complete the sentences.

Choose answers from the box.

Each answer may be used once, more than once or not at all.

When fish fat is added, the volume of biogas

When fish fat is added, the volume of methane

produced.

When fish fat is added, the percentage of methane in

the biogas.

A farmer has a farm 250 kilometres from the sea.

The farmer has a biogas generator on the farm.

The farmer adds manure to the biogas generator.

The farmer decided not to add fish fat to the manure in the biogas generator.

Suggest one reason why.

There is some manure left in the biogas generator.

Explain why the farmer spreads the manure on fields where crops will be grown.

Ichthyosaurs are reptiles that lived in the sea millions of years ago.

Figure 13 shows the fossilised remains of an ichthyosaur.

Suggest how the fossil in Figure 13 was formed after the ichthyosaur died.

The length of the image of the ichthyosaur in Figure 13 is 120 mm.

The real length of the ichthyosaur was 17 times longer than the image in Figure 13.

Calculate the real length of the ichthyosaur.

Give your answer in metres.

Table 5 gives the classification of the ichthyosaur in Figure 13.

Complete Table 5.

Choose answers from the box.

Ichthyosaurs were predators.

Ichthyosaurs are now extinct.

Scientists think that extinction of the ichthyosaurs was caused by increased competition with other predators for food.

Suggest two other possible causes of extinction of the ichthyosaurs.

Students investigated how many daisy plants were growing in a field at different distances from a tree.

This is the method used.

1. Place a 20-metre tape measure on the ground, with the tree at 0 metres.

2. Place a 1 m² quadrat on the ground every 4 metres along the tape measure.

3. Count the number of daisy plants in each quadrat.

4. Take a soil sample from each quadrat to find the percentage of water in the soil.

Figure 14 shows the tree and the tape measure.

This is the method used for finding the percentage of water in each soil sample (step 4):

5. Weigh an empty container.

6. Place the soil sample in the container and weigh again.

7. Heat the container of soil in an oven at 100 °C for several hours.

8. Allow the container of soil to cool and weigh again.

9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 until there is no further change in mass.

Suggest why the students repeated steps 7 and 8 until there was no further change in mass.

Table 6 shows the results.

Calculate percentage X in Table 6.

Give your answer to the nearest whole number.

Describe the effect of distance from the tree on the percentage of water in the soil between 4 metres and 16 metres.

Use Table 6.

A student concluded:

‘As the water content of the soil increases, so does the number of daisy plants.’

Describe two changes to the investigation that would increase the validity of the student’s conclusion.

The percentage of water in the soil is an abiotic factor.

Suggest three other abiotic factors that might have caused more daisy plants to grow further away from the tree.

Do not refer to water in your answer.

Tropisms help plants survive.

What is geotropism?

Plan an investigation to find the effect of the direction of light on the growth of plant seedlings.

You may use the equipment shown in Figure 15 and any other laboratory equipment.

Plant responses are controlled by hormones.

Which hormone controls a plant’s response to the direction of light?

How does the hormone you named in Question 10.3 control the plant’s response to the direction of light?

Tick (✓) one box.

Explain how a plant’s response to light helps the plant survive.