Correction to: The quest for time in plant physiology: a processual perspective

Correction to: Theoretical and Experimental Plant Physiologyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s40626-024-00307-6

The original version of the article is revised due to change in Fig. 1 and under Sect. 3.2 “Plants as dynamical thermodynamical open systems far from equilibrium: what does this mean?” an entire paragraph is missing and it is given below:

Open systems maintain their structure through the dissipation and consumption of energy and are referred to as "dissipative structures." As a result, these systems deviate from thermodynamic equilibrium, or thermal death (2nd Law of Thermodynamics), and are described as "non-equilibrium" systems. Currently, we understand that as a system deviates further from thermodynamic equilibrium, it can traverse multiple zones of instability in which its behavior will qualitatively self-organize. According to Ilya Prigogine (Nobel prize in Chemistry due to his work on systems far from thermodynamical equilibrium), such kind of system can reach a chaotic regime in which its activity can be defined as the inverse of the disorder that prevails in equilibrium (Nicolis and Prigogine 1977; Strogatz 2018). In other words, no stability ensures the relevance of a macroscopic description; all possibilities actualize, coexist, and interfere, and the system is simultaneously everything that can be (Prigogine 1993). Minor instabilities and fluctuations lead to irreversible bifurcations that can result in increased complexity in subsequent behavior. These disruptions caused by environmental factors, subject to the second law of thermodynamics, constitute noise. Noise introduces errors into the system, which can subsequently be responsible for the increase in complexity, thus acting as organizational noise (see further explanation on complex dynamical systems at supplementary material).

The contents in 3.3 in Box 2 is now added as a supplementary material and the 3.3 number has been removed.

The contents in Sect. 3, Box 2 is now part of the supplementary material.

Figure 1 and its legend should read as the following:

Fig. 1

Illustration showing temporal scales of key biological processes in plant physiology. The figure demonstrates the interdependency of intrinsic processes within hierarchical systems. Taking photosynthesis as an example, the rapid light reactions (lasting femtoseconds to 1 s) respond dynamically to environmental light variations. The resulting products feed into larger-scale systems, such as stomatal conductance (operating on seconds to minutes) and metabolic reactions generating sugars (occurring over minutes to hours). These sugars become metabolic compounds fueling various processes in the circadian rhythm, facilitating growth over longer periods. Furthermore, plants, influenced by environmental conditions, adapt, and modify their surroundings, leading to a reciprocal relationship, engendering feedback loops within each scale depicted. The green arrow symbolizes the expansion of time across the diverse biological processes depicted in this general scheme

The original version is corrected.