It's not just the polar bears who are losing their habitat due to melting sea ice. A new study by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) finds that Emperor Penguins, the species that starred in March of The Penguins, may eventually disappear as their habitats vanish.

The flightless birds live in Antarctica and, unlike other birds, raise their young almost exclusively on sea ice. If that ice breaks up early in breeding season, it could drastically limit the number of penguins born to replenish the colony, according to biologist and study leader Stephanie Jenouvrier of WHOI.

This population decline has been seen before with the Dion Islets penguins of the West Antarctica Peninsula.

"In 1948 and the 1970s, scientists recorded more than 150 breeding pairs there. By 1999, the population was down to just 20 pairs, and in 2009, it had vanished entirely," Jenouvrier said.

She thinks the loss of those penguins may have been due to warming temperatures in the region, and the problem could be repeating itself.

Warming temperatures also affect the penguins' food source, as they feed on fish, squid and shrimp-like krill, which in turn feed off of zooplankton and phytoplankton growing on the underside of sea ice. The sea ice melt could create a domino effect, which would ripple through the food web and make it harder on the already waning penguin population.

"As it is, there's a huge mortality rate just at the breeding stages, because only 50 percent of chicks survive to the end of the breeding season, and then only half of those fledglings survive until the next year," Jenouvrier said.