The Age of Discovery from the end of the 15th century to the 18th century, was an informal and loosely defined European historical period marking the time period in which extensive overseas exploration emerged as a powerful factor in European culture and the beginning of globalization. European overseas exploration led to the rise of global trade and the European colonial empires, with the contact between the Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa) and the New World (the Americas and Australia) producing the Columbian Exchange; a wide transfer of plants, animals, food, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases and culture between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. This represented one of the most-significant global events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in history.
A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. Lichens have different properties from those of its component organisms.
