Shallow freshwater areas of the Hudson River Estuary support a range of submerged aquatic vegetation and floating mats of introduced species. Native plants provide numerous ecosystem services in the Hudson River Estuary including high levels of primary production, dissolved oxygen inputs, and critical habitat for invertebrates and fish communities. Soundscape analysis can provide high-level insights into physical habitat characteristics, organismal abundance, and community composition, and have been used to monitor habitat degradation and recovery. We undertook to characterize the soundscapes in native SAV, open water habitat, and invasive Water Chestnut habitat, and to correlate soundscape characteristics with changes in water quality. We show significant decreases in underwater sound levels within water chestnut beds, compared to native submerged aquatic vegetation and the open Hudson River channel. It is likely that dense water chestnut growth attenuates sound more rapidly, and may have direct impact on Hudson species that rely on the detection and production of sound for their life histories.