The integrated budget is . A steady spatial increase needs a source exceeding deposition, for example sediment resuspension or lateral particle input. In unsteady flow, local depletion can produce even without particle addition.
For a steady no-source particle-laden gravity current, . Simply entraining particle-free ambient fluid increases volume and dilutes particle volume fraction; it cannot create particle buoyancy flux.
A steady increase can occur if sediment resuspension or bed erosion adds more suspended particle buoyancy than settling removes, if a tributary or lateral particle source supplies a positive flux, or if the buoyancy per unit particle amount increases through a change of the surrounding fluid's density. Changes of particle properties or another buoyancy source can also alter the flux, but they go beyond the fixed-particle, fixed-reference model. In a model with a source ,
Thus the buoyancy production in a particle-laden current requires in a steady current. In an unsteady current, can be positive even without external addition: local depletion has , so more buoyancy leaves a section than enters it while stored particles are being released. An instantaneous spatial flux increase is not by itself proof of particle production.