  Competitions can occur on an absolute scale, to be faster or more efficient,
or they can occur on a relative scale, to "beat" one's competitor in a zero-sum
game. Ecological models have focused on absolute competitions, in which optima
exist. Classic evolutionary models such as the Wright-Fisher model, as well as
more recent models of travelling waves, have focused on purely relative
competitions, in which fitness continues to increase indefinitely, without
actually progressing anywhere. This manuscript proposes a new way to describe
both at the same time. It begins with a revised version of r/K-selection
theory. r continues to describe maximum reproductive speed, but the new version
of K, with a different subscript, now describes parsimoniousness in territory
use, a group-selected, anti-tragedy-of-the-commons trait. A third dimension c
of fitness is then added to this novel system, one which is unitless and
normalized, and hence capable of capturing the population genetics concept w of
a strictly relative, genetically-limited competitive race. MacArthur's original
version of r/K-selection theory is shown to confound parsimoniousness K with
competitive ability c, despite the fact that available data suggests a negative
correlation between the two; here they are disentangled. A rotation of the
resulting three-dimensional system provides a population genetic underpinning
for Grime's universal adaptive strategy theory of ruderals (selected for high
r), stress tolerators (selected for a combination of high r and high K), and
competitors (selected for a combination of high r and high c).
