Local magnetic reversals are an inseparable part of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)
turbulence whose collective outcome on an arbitrary scale in the inertial range
may lead to a global stochastic reconnection event with a rate independent of
small scale physics. We show that this picture is intimately related to the
nanoflare theory of the solar corona. First, we argue that due to stochastic
flux freezing, a generalized version of flux freezing in turbulence, the
magnetic field follows the turbulent flow in a statistical sense. Bending and
stretching an initially smooth field, therefore, the turbulence generally
increases the magnetic spatial complexity. Strong magnetic shears associated
with such a highly tangled field can trigger local reversals and field
annihilations that convert magnetic energy into kinetic and thermal energy
respectively. The former maintains the turbulence, which incidentally continues
to entangle the field completing the cycle, while the latter enhances the heat
generation in the dissipative range. We support this theoretical picture
invoking recent analytical and numerical studies which suggest a correlation
between magnetic complexity and magnetic energy dissipation. The amplification
of multiple local, in-phase reversals by super-linear Richardson diffusion may
initiate a global reconnection at larger scales, however, even in the absence
of such a global stochastic reconnection, the small scale reversals will
continue to interact with the turbulence. We employ conventional scaling laws
of MHD turbulence to illustrate that these local events are indeed efficient in
both enhancing the turbulence and generating heat. Finally, using an MHD
numerical simulation, we show that the time evolution of the magnetic
complexity is statistically correlated with the kinetic energy injection rate
and/or magnetic-to-thermal energy conversion rate.