A major share of the R&D funds the federal government spends in Alaska are dispensed by the government's own laboratories (about 50 percent in FY 1993, over 40 percent in FY 1994-the apparent reduction in the laboratories' share is due to the DOE "spike," the funds from which went to industry). The majority of the $65 million in obligations to federal labs in Alaska in FY 1994 was divided between the Department of Commerce, with $30 million, and the Department of the Interior, with $24 million (Table 2).

Much of the DOC portion funds the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, which is a facility of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center is responsible for conducting research to help conserve and manage the living marine resources of the region. The Center's Auke Bay Laboratory in Juneau employs more than 100 research professionals. Its research supports international negotiations concerning commercially valuable fisheries in the nation's coastal waters. Among the biological and ecological studies conducted by the Auke Bay Laboratory are those related to chinook salmon, which are undertaken by the Little Port Walter Field Station. The data it collects about human and natural stresses on Alaskan ecosystems has aided the response to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, among other ecological problems.

Several divisions of the Department of Interior also conduct research in Alaska. In Anchorage, the Bureau of Land Management conducts surveying and mapping activities, and until its termination during FY 1996, the Bureau of Mines was responsible for mineral land assessment in Alaska. Some of its functions have been transferred to other Interior Department bureaus. The National Biological Service (scheduled to be merged into the U.S. Geological Survey by October 1996) coordinates research at the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Research Center in Anchorage and operates field stations in Kodiak and Fairbanks.

The U.S. Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture also supports several research stations in Alaska which examine renewable resources, forest ecosystems, and anadromous fish, among other things.

The Department of Defense allocates a modest amount of R&D money ($4 million in FY 1994) to its laboratories in the state, including the Army's Cold Regions Test Activity at Fort Greely.